David Heckman - Berry Plastics
Pal-Mac Rotarian Tom Breen introduced guest speaker Dave Heckman, from Berry Plastics.
Our guest speaker today was David Heckman from Berry Plastics. Dave grew up in the Palmyra-Macedon area and has worked for Berry Plastics and its predecessors since 1975. He came to us today to give an overview of the company and some details on the Macedon plant.
Berry Plastics is headquartered in Evansville, Indiana and is manufacturer of plastic films, tapes, and adhesives. The company began in 1967 as Imperial Plastics and was purchased by Jack Berry in 1983. He renamed the company and over the years it has expanded greatly. The average American handles 5 of the company’s products each day. They manufacture a variety of packaging materials including pallet wrap, grocery bags, drinking cups, yogurt containers, plastic storage bags, and prescription drug vials, to name a few. The company has over 16,000 employees worldwide.
Berry Plastics has made a commitment to sustainability. They are one of the largest plastic recyclers. In fact, the Macedon plant recycles more than 100% of its waste. They purchase scrap from outside sources to recycle into new product. They are the biggest recycler of #5 plastic. The plant is also in the process of switching out its lighting, to be replaced by more energy-efficient lighting.
The Macedon plant has had a few name changes. From GLF to Cordite, Mobil Chemical, Tenneco, Pactiv, Tyco, Covalence, Huntsman, Pliant, to Berry Plastics in 2009. The plant has 530 full-time employees. With 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space, they can produce 7 million packages per day. There are three main areas of production. In Extrusion, plastic pellets are melted and pressed out, like a giant Play-Doh machine, into rolls of film 20 inches in diameter. If unrolled it would be a sheet of plastic 4 miles long. In the Printing area high speed, 10-color printers imprint the customers’ designs at a rate of 2500 feet per minute. Finally, in the Conversion area, the printed film is cut, folded and formed into usable bags and pouches before being packaged for shipment.
Berry Plastics is a vital manufacturing resource and one of our area’s major employers. It was great to have Dave on hand to give us this insight into the company’s operations.
Download the website sponsorship guide