PRI Celebrates its 35th Year of Clean Technology Solutions
Progressive Recovery, Inc. (PRI), is celebrating an exciting milestone, its 35th year in business delivering innovative clean technology solutions to clients worldwide.
It Started with Hazardous Industrial Solutions:
Shortly after the enactment of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, Daniel Marks and Donald Fluchel partnered to pioneer an innovative clean technology that, in essence, “paid” industrial users of solvents to comply with these new regulations. In 1983 as Progressive Recovery, Inc., they engineered a process that allowed companies to recycle spent solvent instead of sending it to hazardous landfills for disposal. By recovering and recycling the solvent, users quickly benefited from the tremendous savings and substantial return on their investment. This early success was quickly followed by additional unique technologies, including a safe and highly-effective, industrial solvent parts washing system for commercial printers to clean press parts. Combining the wash systems with a recovery system created a very efficient closed-loop cleaning process. Then, with the advent of flexographic printing, PRI solved another industry challenge in collaboration with DuPont™ to recycle photopolymer washout solvents. Today, as a leader in the industry with over 3000 systems installed, PRI customers recycle over 12 million gallons of solvent per year for a savings in excess of $300 million annually.
Expanded with Custom Manufacturing Solutions:
As PRI grew and its reputation for quality became known nationally, the company built its first non-PRI designed process skid. Quickly the word got out, and the custom manufacturing division would find its niche building gaseous membrane separation systems for the oil and gas industry. PRI’s fabrication arm operates as a productive and efficient manufacturing center while maintaining high quality and safety standards. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has recently surpassed over four years with no lost time injuries. Today, PRI’s 400+ custom manufacturing systems process over 100,000 tons of gas each year for the world’s largest oil and gas companies.
Advancing with Hazardous Biowaste Treatment Systems:
In 1997 PRI took on a new challenge, which would advance the company into new markets and technologies: the decontamination of hazardous biowaste. Beginning with the BSL4 high-containment laboratory at Texas BioMedical Research Institute (formerly known as the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research), PRI Bio began its pursuit of solutions for the biological research market by offering the world’s first commercialized effluent decontamination system. Today, PRI Bio is considered the world leader in hazardous biowaste treatment with over 300 installations, including the largest hazardous biowaste treatment systems on three continents, sterilizing more than 1 billion gallons of biowaste every year. Its customers include the US government’s departments of agriculture and defense, centers for disease control, research universities, diagnostic laboratories, biotech/biomed and pharmaceutical research, vaccine production and healthcare facilities.
All Supported by World-class Service Solutions:
With proper care, high quality equipment can last a lifetime. By Design™, PRI builds robust and durable systems, and supports its customers in keeping their investments in peak operating condition. Today, PRI’s Service Solutions division is one of the largest service organizations in the industries it serves, and the team of expert field technicians support not only PRI equipment, but services all major brands, as well as other ancillary equipment.
“As a technology leader in all the industries we serve, PRI employee-owners take pride knowing our technologies are protecting the environment, one waste stream at a time. Our clients value our quality and acumen, and trust us to be more than just an equipment provider – rather, we’re a holistic solution partner at every phase of the project. We sweat the details, challenge the assumptions and support the project team from initial concept, through design, testing, installation, commissioning and thereafter as a service-life partner. Our equipment outlives an individual’s career, in many cases,” says Jim Laarman, PRI CEO.
PRI is well-positioned for continued success, as it forges strong partnerships to expand its products and service offerings to new and existing markets. With a thriving Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP), employees are proud to be able to have a direct impact upon the company, as profits are shared throughout the organization.
ISO 9001:2015
