GIANT STEPS, TINY FOOTPRINTS The Inteplast Journey

GIANT STEPS, TINY FOOTPRINTS The Inteplast Journey

North America’s largest integrated plastics manufacturer demonstrates how holistic sustainability cultivates growth, success, and joy—and keeps jobs right here at home.

As offshoring continues to drain the life out of domestic manufacturing, there are epicenters of vision and persistence that are creating meaningful jobs, sustaining communities, and redefining what it means to be “made in America.” One such locus exists in the South Texas town of Lolita, population 900—more or less.

The 2.6 square-mile town is home to one of the most advanced plastics manufacturing plants in the world, owned by the Livingston, NJ-based Inteplast Group Corporation. Lolita is home to nine facilities occupying 575 acres; the company estimates that its Lolita location’s output will exceed one billion pounds of plastic materials—all of it 100 percent recyclable.

Established in 1991, Inteplast is comprised of three divisions: AmTopp, a producer of polypropylene plastics film known in the industry as BOPP; World-Pak, a source for PVC products, corrugated plastic sheets, and heavyduty cross-laminated film and bags; and Integrated Bagging Systems, which creates bagging for a nearly inexhaustible variety of uses.

In addition to its Lolita operations, Inteplast operates state-of-the-art ISO 9001: 2008 certified manufacturing facilities elsewhere in North American and in Asia. There are 55 locations in North America.

Values, Goals, and Evidence: Creating Inteplast In the early ‘90s, this country’s manufacturing jobs were flooding into countries with lower market labor costs. The fight to keep those jobs stateside was viewed, by and large, as a Quixotic endeavor, especially for a fledgling enterprise. Enter Inteplast Group President Dr. John Young with his leadership team.