Twine may mesh into money

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Published: July 15, 1999

For the last three years, Gary Horan’s money has been tied up in twine.

But that’s OK, because the enviro-business consultant from Stony Plain, Alta., thinks he has figured out a way to turn used twine into money.

Horan has a patent pending on a technology that converts binder twine into polypropylene fibres, which are used as a reinforcing agent in concrete. He figures he can sell the stuff at three-quarters of the price of its commercial equivalent, Fibermesh, and still make a “good profit.”

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Over the last three years, Horan and two minority partners have invested $200,000 developing, researching and testing PPF-25, the product his company, Fibercorp Technologies Inc., hopes to produce in the near future. The only government funding he received was a National Research Council grant of less than $15,000.

Now he’s reached a point where it’s time to raise money for construction of a $500,000 processing plant. He has had nibbles from investors already, but no firm dollar commitments.

Prairie location

Horan said the proposed plant would employ six to eight people and would have the capacity to generate 500,000 kilograms of polypropylene fibre a year. The plant could be located anywhere on the Prairies, a region where six million kilograms of twine are sold annually.

During the initial phase of the project, discarded twine will be collected from high volume disposers, such as alfalfa processors and strawboard plants. Instead of throwing the twine into piles that are eventually taken to landfills, Horan plans to equip the processors with his twine bundling machines and will take the end product off their hands.

He said he has conducted successful six-month pilot collection projects with two alfalfa processors, Champion Hay Processors in Olds, Alta., and Elcan Forage in Broderick, Sask.

Len Prenholm of Champion Hay said Horan’s collection machines are “a bit of a pain.” His workers gather twine in a loose ball. The Fibercorp machines require someone to straighten the twine before it is bundled.

“To us there is no value to it,” said Prenholm. Even though it would save him the cost of hauling twine to a landfill, he wouldn’t use Horan’s collection service.

But Horan is confident enough processors will. It’s simply a matter of twine collection becoming a habit, like recycling paper, he said.

Some of the larger strawboard plants go through 10,000 kilograms of twine a month, he noted, so his initial supply requirements could be met by a handful of such operations. But as the company grows, he may have to start collecting twine directly off the farm.

“Obviously I can’t have trucks running up and down back roads picking up 10 pounds of material. That wouldn’t be cost effective,” said Horan.

That’s where 4-H clubs come in.

“As the market increases and we have to go to more of a farmgate collection system, 4-H is ideally positioned (for this).”

He said 4-H will receive 22 cents out of every kilogram of the fibre sold, regardless of how it was collected. He hopes this will encourage the groups to form centres across the Prairies where farmers can drop off their discarded twine.

Janice Myers, executive director of the Saskatchewan 4-H Council, said the group has been approached by Horan, but no formal collection agreement has been signed.

All they have done so far is let him use their name when approaching alfalfa processors. They are not endorsing the product until there is proof it will generate revenue for the council and divert twine from landfills.

According to a Fibercorp Technologies Inc. news release, the concrete industry pours more than 30 million cubic yards of fibre-reinforced concrete in North America each year. Horan hopes to capture 20 percent of the Canadian market for fibre reinforced concrete.

He said the product has generated interest and even a few small purchase orders from customers in the precast concrete business and from engineering crews in some cities, towns and villages.

About the author

Sean Pratt

Sean Pratt

Reporter/Analyst

Sean Pratt has been working at The Western Producer since 1993 after graduating from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Sean also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked in a bank for a few years before switching careers. Sean primarily writes markets and policy stories about the grain industry and has attended more than 100 conferences over the past three decades. He has received awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, North American Agricultural Journalists and the American Agricultural Editors Association.

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