8A | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
PakTech from A1
On the Cottage Grove
PakTech site, seven large
injection molding ma-
chines process liquifi ed
HDPE into precise custom-
izable shapes for workers
to sort and package. The
fi nished product ends up
on packs of bottles, cans
and other products at re-
tailers.
The company’s exten-
sive client list includes
Pepsi, Coke, Procter &
Gamble, Hop Valley Brew-
ing and Ninkasi Brewing
Company.
Borg, an engineer, de-
signed all the handles made
by the company.
“We’re able to just de-
sign something on the
computer, make a mold for
it and we’ve got the part in
hand in a week or so,” he
said.
Though
the
fami-
ly-owned business started
in 1991, its transition to
recycled plastics only be-
gan over the last fi ve years
and production didn’t set
in until the last couple
years. The company had
previously manufactured
custom plastic molds and
plastic packaging items.
Headquartered in Eu-
gene, PakTech opened
operations into Cottage
Grove in 2017. Borg cred-
ited the city with easing the
moving process.
“The city manager here
even took an inspection
class so that he could come
out and inspect our work
and get the permits sealed
up faster,” he said.
The company produc-
es its handles entirely in-
house, reducing the burden
of third-party errors.
“We actually have our
tool room, our designing
and our injection molding
all within one company,”
Borg said.
This year has been
marked by signs of success
and growth for the compa-
ny.
In September, the Cot-
tage Grove City Council
voted to annex two acres
of land owned by City Life
Church, PakTech’s neigh-
boring property.
PakTech had inquired
to the church about a strip
of unused land between
the two properties. The
church, sitting just outside
city limits, applied for ex-
pedited annexation of the
land for PakTech’s use.
The expansion of the site
will allow for streamlined
trucking access and greater
effi ciency.
And PakTech’s momen-
tum hasn’t gone unnoticed
by the community.
The Vision Keepers, a
local committee which
tracks the progress of com-
munity goals, awarded the
company with the Pioneer-
ing the Future Award at an
Aug. 29 city council meet-
ing this year.
“Paktech not only de-
serves this award for their
Earth-friendly
approach
to creating state-of-the-
art packaging handles and
materials, but they strive to
use as many recycled ma-
terials as they can,” said
Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Tra-
vis Palmer at the meeting.
“And they also invest in
their employees by helping
to pay for their employees
to get continued education
and move on with their
careers — that’s really pi-
oneering the future.”
The company has also
invested locally by spon-
soring the Mayor’s Ball for
the past two years, an an-
nual event which has been
raising funds for the con-
tinuing restoration of the
Cottage Grove Armory.
Since the company’s
expansion into Cottage
Grove, PakTech has grown
to employ around 70 work-
ers.
Supervisor
Brooke
Feurer has been with the
company for fi ve years
and moved from Eugene
to take a promotion at the
new Cottage Grove site.
Feurer’s experience with
the company has been
overwhelmingly positive.
“They really take care of
their employees,” she said.
“I’ve never had any com-
pany treat their employees
the way they do.”
Perhaps most notable
among the list of bene-
fi ts, PakTech reimburses
employees for unlimited
college credits and other
expenses in their educa-
tional pursuits providing
they maintain a “C” grade
average.
“It’s nice to work for a
company that helps you get
an education,” said Feurer.
“I was thinking about tak-
ing advantage of it and do-
ing some business courses.
I have known employees
who have done that.”
Of the roughly 70 em-
ployees, the majority are
from Cottage Grove and
the surrounding areas.
Currently, space allows
for three more machines
to be added as business
picks up. At capacity, Borg
speculated around 100 em-
ployees could be working
at the site, bringing further
economic and workforce
growth to the town.
Borg also feels that Pak-
Tech’s contribution to the
recycling demands of the
area may have larger legis-
lative implications.
“We’re using enough
plastic to where we’re get-
ting noticed by people who
can sway policy,” Borg
said, hopeful that he may
have the ear of enough
government offi cials to
move legislation through
the state. “I think we
should do something along
the lines of what Germa-
ny does, which is identify
a new color bin for just
plastics – and stop putting
cardboard in the same bin
as plastics.”
The mixture of card-
board and plastics is a
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problem for PakTech’s
handles.
Despite the handles be-
ing #2 plastic, large sort-
ing machines tend to miss
them when separating
cardboard and other recy-
clables. These sorting er-
rors can lead to a contami-
nated cardboard stream.
“So even if you wanted
to recycle them, you pret-
ty much can’t,” said Borg.
“That’s one of the things
we’re looking at – seeing if
the county is willing to get
a separate recycle bin for
plastics.”
For the time being, Pa-
kTech takes back its own
handles on site in Cottage
Grove and sends them to a
materials recovery facility,
an option which Borg says
is still not entirely effi cient
and could be improved
with facilities dedicated to
plastics.
Even so, Borg encourag-
es people to collect
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