Ravago was founded as a plastics recycling company, so it is only natural they are a leader in plastics recycling and responsible use. The plant in Medina, which is 500,000 square feet (that’s over 8 football fields!), specializes in mixing plastics for customers. Plastic used in manufacturing is shipped to Ravago by rail car and are very small pellets. They come in a range of colors and types and Ravago mixes the different kinds to make the blend their clients need. In doing so, they work hard to minimize how much is dropped or lost and They are always thinking about the impact their product has on the environment. In fact, the tree in their logo goes outside the box around it to show they are always thinking outside the box on recycling.

Raf Van Gorp started Ravago in 1961 to recycle waste products from plastic-producing companies. He named the company Ravago by taking the first two letters of each word in his name – Ra, Va, Go. The company has grown to include divisions that produce, distribute, and recycle rubber, plastics, and chemicals. The Medina location opened in 2019 after moving from Barberton.

A company as large as ours needs to be constantly improving. We are looking at everything we do and asking why we do it that way. Is it the most efficient? Could there be ways to improve it? And we also look at where do we have issues. How can we address them and prevent them from happening in the future. We constantly have to make sure the whole team is on board because change can be hard for people and we want everyone to understand. We also are putting in a computer system to manage our warehouse. We have materials coming in and out of the warehouse and in the past, everything we did was on paper. In the very near future everything will be in the computer and we expect to see a bunch of benefits. We are also dealing with transportation challenges. Several of our products come through the Suez Canal and right now there are pirates stopping shipments. Once the material gets to the United States, we have a shortage of train engineers and workers so it is a longer wait time to get the material on a train. And then as a country we have a shortage of truck drivers so it is harder to get the material here on trucks as well. 

In Ohio, we have locations in Medina, Wadsworth, and Twinsburg and those are three of the 325 locations worldwide. We are in 65 countries and ship all over the world. We ship 6,800,000 metric tons of polymer pellets, or the stuff that makes plastic. A metric ton is about the same as a huge bag containing 1,000 toy cars. That’s a lot of cars!

If you have ever worked with beads, you know they can get away from you pretty easily. We have to make sure no product gets out on the floor of the plant. One of our main goals is to always be a leader in recycling and sustainability so we have lots of ways to minimize our energy use, and constantly invest in technology to improve our results. One of our plants can even recycle used carpet when it is removed from homes or businesses! We are also a member of Operation Clean Sweep which is a group of over 950 facilities and 250 companies committed to preserving water quality, wildlife, and protect the environment.

We work closely with our city and state governments on programs to lower our taxes. A large part of our materials come into the plant on rail cars so we work closely with railroads and all of their regulatory organizations. We are also happy to have local school districts bring students in for tours. 

All our applications go through our website. Everyone here will have to use a computer so we need all our associates comfortable on keyboards. 

Why do employees like to work here?

 We are a very low-drama environment. If there is an issue, we fix it quickly and as a team. Also, we really do promote from within. Our General Manager started as the receptionist for a company in Barberton. Because she’s a go getter, she looked around and realized the rail cars coming in and out of the plant needed more systems in place. She started managing the processes in that area and became indispensible. When the company was sold to Ravago, she was someone that Ravago kept because she knew how things worked and they loved her attitude. Over the years she moved up in the company and is now responsible for all 99 employees in the Medina facility and has people from all over the world calling her and asking how she has been so successful. When you have examples like that of internal success, it is really motivating!