ADAMS -- For Rick Filiault, giving back includes trying to help the economy in his hometown.
The Adams native recently opened a branch of bGreenplastics, his North Carolina-based plastics recycling business, in the Adams Industrial Park.
"I’m from Adams and I know a lot of people there," said Filiault, 40, a 1990 graduate of Hoosac Valley High School. "One of the things that I wanted to see was Adams have more business."
The town’s proximity to Pittsfield, which has a number of small plastics firms, was also an enticement.
"On the practical side, Pittsfield is a great mecca for plastic molding," Filiault said.
Based in Statesville, N.C., bGreen plastics is a full-service plastic recycler that offers nationwide services and specializes in commercial and industrial accounts. The firm’s parent company, Optiglass PC, which Filiault also owns, sells polycarbonate sheets and film.
bGreenplastics collects plastic molders and extruders, then resells the material to other plastics firms. Those businesses use the recycled material to make other products, he said.
"Most of my customers are in Pittsfield, and they’re mostly injection molders," Filiault said.
bGreenplastics opened its Adams office in April with just 1.5 employees. But Filiault said he plans to expand the business locally and hopes to eventually have as many as 15 employees.
"I’m going to be hiring soon," he said.
Besides growing up in the Berkshires, Filiault also has a working knowledge of the county’s economy.
After earning a degree in business administration from Chaminade University of Honolulu, Filiault spent 10 years working for GE Plastics, which included a six-year stint at the company’s former world headquarters in Pittsfield. Filiault followed GE to North Carolina, where he covered one of the global conglomerate’s biggest customers.
Filiault, who was an account manager for GE Plastics, founded Optiglass in 2005 in the Cincinnati area. The company originally consisted of manufacturing and distribution divisions, with the manufacturing side turning out pieces for the military and aerospace industries. But after Filiault sold the manufacturing division in 2010, he began looking for a new place to move the distribution side of the business.
He settled on Statesville, a small city in western North Carolina, where the company moved from Ohio in Dec ember 2010. bGreen plastics was formed last year when Filiault decided to enter the recycling business.
The Adams facility is the only branch office the company operates outside of a sales office in Charlotte, N.C.
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