To this day, now months later, the mayor still has not received a good explanation about why Myplas shut down. "I can't tell you why it closed. They didn't give us a viable answer for that," he said. "We were all surprised."
"I never personally got an explanation why it shut down, why it closed," he said.
Rogers officials helped Myplas land $1 million in state funding to help with the new business, the mayor said. But the municipality, itself, did not have any financial ties to the project.
Myplas opened to great anticipation and fanfare as the project was promoted as a new way to bring together multiple stakeholders to tackle the difficult job of recycling used film. Only about 5 to 6 percent of all plastic film ends up being recycled, and detractors of the material point to that low rate in their criticism.
So a coalition of recyclers and brand owners were eager to come together to back the Myplas project, including film maker Charter Next Generation that not only invested in the project but also planned to use output from the recycler to make new product.
Myplas renovated a 170,000-square-foot former distribution center to install lines to recycle both high and low density polyethylene films. Plans were to ultimately have a capacity of 90 million pounds per year.
When the project was first announced in May 2022, Charter Next Generation was part of a group of a group that included General Mills, Schwan's, Target and Ecolab that was providing a $9.2 million equity investment.
Multiple attempts to reach Charter Next Generation regarding Myplas have been unsuccessful.
But Brett Angell has had a view of the situation as community development director for the city of Rogers, and he was willing to talk.
While the city did not have direct knowledge of the work at Myplas, there also were not any red flags as far as local officials could see from the outside. That is until one day when the parking lot was nearly empty and it became clear operations were shuttered.
To this day, an aura of mystery continues to surround the failed operation. Neither Angell nor Ihli know exactly what led to the closure.
"I really don't, to be honest with you. That's one thing that neither myself nor our council members or anyone in the city has ever got clarification on, of what actually happened to lead it to get to this point," Angell said.
What the city has been hearing, however, is there is the potential for the site to reopen.
"There's some interested parties," Angell said. "The initial foreclosure sale — the public sale that was going to happen on the equipment — has been pushed back, and that's really all the info I have on that."
Peter Shippen is board chairman of Myplas USA, and repeated attempts to reach him have been unsuccessful. Shippen did provide comment to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in February when the site closed. "Myplas is committed to the vision of a circular economy for flexible films in the Upper Midwest," Shippen told the newspaper. "To execute this vision, we are currently exploring management and operational changes."
MBOLD is an initiative of the Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership that brought together the backers for the recycling operation, but also has not had much to say in the weeks and now months since Myplas closed. MBOLD, which is a coalition of companies, researchers and nonprofit groups, did issue a statement that continues to support the idea of flexible film recycling.
"While this recycling facility will not operate under its original structure, we remain committed to our vision for a circular economy for flexible films in the Upper Midwest. As a catalyst and convener, we value the partnership of the many businesses and organizations that share our vision," MBOLD said.
"To clarify, the MBOLD coalition itself is not a financial investor in Myplas USA, nor does it participate in the oversight or operation of that business," MBOLD said.
MBOLD Managing Director JoAnne Berkenkamp held out great hope for the project in an interview in early 2023. "I think it's really going to be a game-changer in our region for getting more companies and institutions to recycle their film, to do so close to home," she said at the time.
Closed Loop Partners, a New York investment firm focused on the circular economy, loaned $5 million to Myplas for the Rogers facility. But when reached for comment, Closed Loop suggested contacting Shippen for comment.
Andrew Pieterse was CEO of Myplas USA, but he also has been unreachable through two phone numbers listed on his business card. The Rogers business was an offshoot of Myplas (Pty) Ltd. of Cape Town, South Africa, which also did not return messages seeking comment.
Pieterse, in a previous interview, said he felt compelled to leave a good job in the oil and gas industry to lead the effort in Rogers. "I frankly saw this vision and wanted to — felt like I had to — be part of this project and this change," he said. "When it feels right, it feels right."
The state also provided Myplas with a $1 million loan through the Minnesota Investment Fund, which provides money through local governments, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).
"MIF provides funding to the local unit of government, which then makes a loan to the business. For Myplas, MIF provided $1M to the City of Rogers, which then made a loan to Myplas. DEED is working with the city on its options to collect on the loan," a DEED spokeswoman said via email.
"We had a lot of people excited about it. And it was good jobs with good money," Ihli, the mayor, said.
