Dive Brief:

• Circular Services, the operating company for Closed Loop Partners’ materials management assets, has acquired Midwest Fiber Recycling. Balcones Recycling, the recycling arm of Circular Services, will now operate 18 recycling facilities around the country.
• Midwest’s assets include recycling facilities in Decatur, Normal, Urbana and Peoria, Illinois, as well as one in Terre Haute, Indiana. The company also offers collection, document destruction and materials brokerage services.
• Family-owned Midwest Fiber describes itself as one of the largest recycling operations in the region. The Shumaker family is expected to continue running operations. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dive Insight:

This marks Closed Loop’s latest effort to invest directly in recycling infrastructure, with the goal of building up a “pure-play recycling company” that doesn’t own disposal assets. 

Circular Services launched a year ago with plans to offer a range of recycling services for packaging, textiles, electronics and organics through various portfolio companies. Recently, under that umbrella, Balcones Resources and Sims Municipal Recycling merged under the new name of Balcones Recycling. This is the first acquisition since that combination.

“The Shumakers have built and led a great company with an excellent reputation as they served their surrounding communities for over 30 years,” said Balcones CEO Tom Outerbridge in a statement, adding that the company plans to support this “growing portfolio of facilities to offer custom, effective recycling solutions to more municipalities, counties and small-to-large businesses.”

Ron and Linda Shumaker started Midwest in 1990 when they purchased the Decatur Recycle Paper Company. Midwest has grown through multiple other acquisitions since then — including assets from Weyerhaeuser Recycling, Data Management Services and Community Resource — while also building and upgrading multiple MRFs. Their sons, Mike and Todd Shumaker, currently run operations.

“The singular focus of Circular Services and Balcones Recycling on advancing robust circular materials management, as well as their longstanding experience operating recycling infrastructure, made them a great fit,” said Midwest CEO Mike Shumaker in a statement.

The acquisition helps Circular Services provide “more communities and companies with the infrastructure needed to reduce dependence on extraction and landfill, and advance a circular economy,” said Amy Wagner, Circular Services’ CFO and executive vice president of business development and operations. 

Prior to the acquisition, Circular Services was handling more than 1 million tons of recyclables each year through MRFs it owns or operates in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Arkansas. This portfolio was built through the acquisitions of Balcones in 2019, Single Stream Recyclers in 2020 and Sims in 2022.

Earlier this year, Circular Services said it had attracted nearly $1 billion in investments from companies such as Brookfield Renewables, Microsoft, Nestlé, PepsiCo, SK Group, Starbucks and Unilever.