Maintenance Technician

Niagara Bottling hosts enzymatic PET recycling test. Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling will validate enzymatic PET recycling technology at a California facility through a $3 million DOE program. October 15, 2026 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will independently verify energy use and recovered monomer quality. A biotechnology startup's enzyme-driven approach to breaking down plastic waste is about to face its toughest test yet - on a working factory floor. Rhea's Factory, a biotechnology company developing enzymatic PET recycling, and Niagara Bottling LLC, a family-owned US water and beverage manufacturer, have been selected for the US Department of Energy's Industrial Technology Validation (ITV) program, administered by DOE's Industrial Technologies Office. The project will validate RheaCycle, Rhea's Factory's enzymatic depolymerization platform, under industrial operating conditions at Niagara's PET recycling facility in Vernon, California, with performance independently measured and verified by experts from DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nine projects selected. DOE's ITV program selected nine projects nationwide for a combined $3 million in funding. Each project pairs a technology developer with an industrial host site that installs and operates the technology under real production conditions. "A major barrier hindering industrial adoption of many promising technologies is that end users lack reliable and unbiased information about their performance," said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. "ITV is the cornerstone program that addresses this barrier head on." At the Vernon site, RheaCycle combines AI-designed enzymes with a proprietary downstream separation process to break PET down into its two building blocks: purified terephthalic acid, or TPA, and ethylene glycol, or EG. Because the enzymes act selectively on PET, the process accepts a wide range of post-consumer feedstocks, including thermoforms, contaminated PET, residual streams from existing recycling lines, and polyester textiles. The recovered monomers are virgin-equivalent and can be repolymerized into new PET with no loss of quality, cycle after cycle, giving these streams a direct path back into food-grade packaging. Validating integrated system. The project will validate the integrated system on the PET streams handled at the Vernon facility, including recycling residuals, off-spec material, and thermoforms, under industrial operation. Energy efficiency is a core design metric for RheaCycle: Enzymatic depolymerization runs at low temperature and atmospheric pressure, and the validation will independently measure energy and water use per kilogram of recovered monomer. "Bringing a technology like this to commercial scale takes more than good science," said Dr. Arzu Sandikci, CEO and co-founder of Rhea's Factory. "It takes a federal program willing to fund independent validation, a national laboratory willing to measure it, an industry partner like Niagara willing to host it, and a startup that has already proven the science and built the process to run at industrial scale. This project brings all four together, and that's how a new industry gets built." Recent acquisition. Niagara's role builds on a recent investment. In May 2026, Niagara acquired the Vernon recycling and packaging facility and the rPlanet Earth brand to reprocess PET into high-quality recycled PET flakes and pellets for Niagara packaging. The ITV project will install RheaCycle(TM) as a parallel line at the site, extending the range of PET the facility can return to food grade without modifying Niagara's existing operations. The two approaches are complementary, according to Rhea's Factory. Mechanical recycling remains the most efficient route for clean bottle streams, while enzymatic depolymerization creates an additional pathway for streams outside the mechanical spec, raising the share of collected PET that gets a second life and improving the economics of each ton processed. Cost has been a design requirement for RheaCycle from the start, with the platform built so that recycled PET competes on economics, as well as on quality and environmental benefits. Work begins. Site preparation is underway at Niagara's Vernon facility, with installation and commissioning expected to take up to six months before the validation period begins. The results are expected to accelerate Rhea's Factory's commercial roadmap and the partnerships already taking shape around it. Rhea's Factory, founded in 2024 and based in Berkeley, California, develops enzymatic recycling for plastics and synthetic fibers, starting with PET. Its RheaCycle platform uses artificial intelligence to design both the enzymes and the paired proprietary end-to-end processes that break down plastics into their original building blocks, aiming to turn waste streams considered unrecyclable today - from mixed and multilayer packaging to textiles - into tomorrow's materials. Niagara Bottling, founded in 1963 and headquartered in Diamond Bar, California, is a family-owned water and beverage manufacturer operating more than 50 plant locations with over 9,000 team members across the United States, Mexico, Australia, and the United Kingdom. DOE's ITV program is administered by its Industrial Technologies Office and supported by DOE national laboratories, with the goal of accelerating the deployment of high-impact technologies that optimize industrial processes, increase energy savings, and enhance the competitiveness of US industry in evolving global markets. Editor-in-chief of PlasticsToday, David Hutton is a journalist with more than 25 years of experience as an editor and writer with daily newspapers and trade publications. A Kent State University graduate, he was born in Canton, OH, and is a lifelong writer. David started his professional career as a reporter and page designer with the Parkersburg Sentinel in Parkersburg, WV. He returned to his hometown, taking a role with the Massillon Independent, where he rose to the position of managing editor. David's career next took him to October Research Corp., where he worked for trade publications in the real estate settlement services industry before returning to daily newspapers as news editor for The Times-Reporter in Dover-New Philadelphia, OH. While there, he oversaw design of the newspaper and won an Associated Press award for Best Page 1 Design. In 2012, David joined the staff of Plastics News as research analyst. He was responsible for the production of data research reports providing analysis of various segments and end markets of the plastics industry. He also produced content for the publication. In 2019, David joined Ophthalmology Times, serving as managing editor of the publication covering the latest advancements in the ophthalmology industry for physicians and clinicians. David lives in Canton, OH, with his wife, Arionne. They have three grown children, Paige, Chandler and Connor. Their "zoo" also includes two cats, a parrot, and a pug, named Freddie. An avid sports fan, David follows the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Guardians as well as the Ohio State Buckeyes. He also enjoys movies, classic rock, and reading. He enjoys sports cars, and owns a Camaro and a Corvette. Want more PlasticsToday in your search results?

Rhea's Factory partners with Niagara Bottling through DOE program. The project will validate the industrial deployment of Rhea's Factory's enzymatic PET recycling process at Niagara Bottling's mechanical recycling facility in Vernon, California. Published October 14, 2026 Rhea's Factory Inc., a biotechnology company developing enzymatic PET recycling, and Niagara Bottling LLC, a family-owned U.S. water and beverage manufacturer, have been selected for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Industrial Technology Validation (ITV) program, administered by DOE's Industrial Technologies Office. The project will validate RheaCycle, Rhea's Factory's enzymatic depolymerization platform, under industrial operating conditions at Niagara's PET recycling facility located in Vernon, California. The project's performance will be independently measured and verified by experts from DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rhea's Factory says. DOE's ITV program selected nine projects nationwide for a combined $3 million in funding, according to Rhea's Factory. Each project pairs a technology developer with an industrial host site that installs and operates the technology under real production conditions. At the Vernon facility, RheaCycle combines artificial intelligence-designed enzymes with a proprietary downstream separation process to break PET down into terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Because the enzymes act selectively on PET, the process can be applied to a wide range of postconsumer feedstocks, including thermoforms, contaminated PET and polyester textiles, Rhea's Factory says. The recovered monomers can be repolymerized into new PET, giving these streams a direct path back into food-grade packaging.

Former marine engineer turned supply chain Executive releases "From Engines to Algorithms," Charting a new framework for operational constraints. Los Angeles, California, 22nd July 2026 - Niraj Jha, Senior Director of Logistics at Niagara Bottling LLC, the largest privately held beverage company in the United States, has released From Engines to Algorithms, a book drawing on his uncommon path from licensed marine engineer to supply chain leader to explain why technology does not make operational bottlenecks disappear, they just relocate them. Jha spent four years at sea as a marine engineer before moving into logistics and manufacturing operations, a transition that forms the spine of the book. The title itself signals the arc: from the mechanical world of ship engines, where a single failed component can strand a vessel, to the algorithmic systems now running modern supply chains, where the failure points are just as real but far less visible. At the center of the book is Jha's "Law of Constraint Migration," a framework he has developed over years of running manufacturing and logistics operations across dozens of plants and thousands of weekly truckloads. The core argument: every time an organization fixes its most visible bottleneck with technology, the constraint does not vanish, it migrates to the next weakest point in the system. Leaders who treat constraint-fixing as a one-time project, rather than a permanent discipline, end up chasing the same problem in a different disguise year after year. "Systemic failure does not happen because of one big catastrophic event," Jha said. "It starts with leaders having a static approach to problem solving, where this fix one constraint using technology and then move on without understanding where the constraint has moved." That principle was shaped in part by direct experience. Jha's early engineering career included firsthand exposure to the operational and mechanical failure chains that can escalate quietly before becoming visible incidents, lessons he has carried directly into how he now evaluates risk in logistics networks spanning multiple plants, carriers, and third-party providers. Since moving into supply chain leadership, Jha has held roles from plant director to his current position overseeing logistics strategy across a multi-state region, and is now deeply involved in Niagara Bottling's AI strategy for manufacturing and supply chain operations. He holds several patents in manufacturing and supply chain technology, including three granted US patents around direct to store shipments, and has deployed AI-driven systems for automated palletizing, dynamic shipping, and operational incident handling. From Engines to Algorithms is written for operators, not theorists. Jha's stated approach throughout is practitioner credibility over metaphor: fewer abstractions, more direct account of what breaks in real operations and why. The book avoids the hedge-everything tone common in management literature in favor of decision-oriented conclusions. Jha is a member of CSCMP's Executive Inner Circle, an invitation-only group of senior supply chain executives, as well as the member of the World Economic Forum and the Fast Company Executive Board. He has been featured as a keynote speaker in multiple industry forums and his writing has appeared in Beverage digest, supply chain management review, SupplyChainBrain, Fast Company, and other trade publications, and he continues to publish ongoing analysis on constraint migration, AI economics, and supply chain strategy through his Substack and LinkedIn. From Engines to Algorithms is available now. Readers can learn more and find purchasing details at enginestoalgorithms.com. Niraj Jha is Senior Director of Logistics at Niagara Bottling LLC, where he is deeply involved in the company's AI strategy for manufacturing and supply chain operations. A licensed marine engineer by training, he spent four years in deep-sea service before transitioning into supply chain and operations leadership, where he has spent sixteen years in various leadership roles. He holds several patents in manufacturing and supply chain technology and developed and conceptualized the Law of Constraint Migration.