Minnesota’s struggling plastic film recycler facing eviction for $1.3 million in unpaid rent, bills

A plastic film recycling company that opened the first facility of its kind in Minnesota last year has not paid any rent so far in 2024, according to a lawsuit filed this week.

Myplas USA owes more than $389,000 in unpaid rent on its 160,000-square-foot industrial space in Rogers, according to the suit, and an electrical contractor also filed an $895,000 lien for unpaid bills last month.

The building’s landlord is asking a judge to evict Myplas from the business park on Diamond Lake Road for failing to come up with the rent or settle the lien.

After celebrating the grand opening of the $30 million recycling plant in December, Myplas furloughed staff and shut down machinery earlier this year. The chair of the company’s board, Peter Shippen, said in February that Myplas is “exploring management and operational changes.”

“Myplas USA unexpectedly ran into financial challenges shortly after the launch of operations in Minnesota,” Shippen said Thursday. “The board continues to actively pursue opportunities to resume operations under a different structure. Given the current status of the business, we understand that various parties need to take steps to protect their interests.”

Nearly every page of the Myplas USA website went offline last month.

MBOLD, the Minnesota business collective that championed the project and gathered investors but has no oversight of Myplas operations, said in a statement the facility “will not operate under its original structure.”

The group — which counts General Mills, Schwan’s, Ecolab, Cargill and Target among its members — had promoted the idea of a “circular economy” that would take single-use plastic films and bags and cultivate demand for the recycled products coming out the other end.

“We remain committed to our vision for a circular economy for flexible films in the Upper Midwest,” MBOLD said in a statement. “We look forward to advancing a circular economy as part of our broader mission to bring Minnesota’s food and agriculture leaders together and accelerate solutions to global sustainability challenges.”

The corporations had invested a combined $9 million into the project. Many other major Minnesota firms pledged to look into ways to support the plastic recycling effort.

MBOLD, at some point this year, took down an announcement listing many participants in the project, which included Allina Health, Hormel Foods, Marvin and Mortenson.

Financial challenges beset the project from the beginning. The first announced price tag of $24 million for the Myplas facility rose 25% by the time it opened.

Reached on LinkedIn after the facility had gone quiet, former Myplas USA CEO Andrew Pieterse said in February: “This was never going to be easy, a lot happening in the background.”