Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Invests in MicroGREEN Polymers

ARLINGTON, Wash., Aug. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MicroGREEN Polymers, Inc. (www.microgreeninc.com), which provides the world with environmentally sound plastics technologies that offer substantial economic advantages, today announced that the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, based in Grand Ronde, Oregon (www.grandronde.org), has made a strategic investment in the company. They were joined by other inside investors in the $10 million closing.

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These Series B funds, combined with the $5 million Series B investment from the Stillaguamish Tribe earlier in the year, brings the total MicroGREEN has now raised to $42 million. The company expects to raise an additional $5 million in Series B funds in the immediate future.

The new investment will help MicroGREEN extend its commercial production capabilities to meet demand of current orders and tool up to manufacture a complete family of recyclable hot and cold cups for consumer use. MicroGREEN also intends to finance $8 million worth of production equipment to integrate manufacturing and fulfill its strategic business objectives.

MicroGREEN works with an array of customers, including Redhook Brewery, and Alaska Airlines– who use MicroGREEN's InCycle® cups. InCycle cups are the first recycled and recyclable insulating hot and cold cups that fully address customers' need for affordable sustainability.

"We're very excited to have the Grand Ronde tribes as an investor," says Tom Malone, President and CEO of MicroGREEN. "We've focused our funding efforts on Indian Country, because our sustainability ethos and our exciting economic opportunity resonate with them. We have investment from traditional financiers and corporate strategic funds, including Waste Management and WRF Capital, but our green mission, and our economic goals, clearly align with the long-term objectives of tribal investors."

Adds Titu Asghar, Director of Economic Development for The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde: "We first learned about the powerful impact of the MicroGREEN proposition from the Stillaguamish Tribe at an Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians meeting, and we immediately recognized how an investment in MicroGREEN and its InCycle® products could be a strategic fit with our economic diversification goals."

"MicroGREEN's technology is a game changer.  Their ability to reduce waste while lowering cost and improving product performance fits the Grand Ronde Tribe's commitment to sustainability and environment.   As a Tribal community we look for investment opportunities and projects that fulfill our commitment to being stewards of our environment and supporting our Tribal people looking seven generations forward." Asghar said.

MicroGREEN delivers a unique convergence of sustainability and economic return. And its technology needs less plastic to produce the world's only insulating and recyclable hot cup, that uses the plastic from recycled water bottles. The recycled content and recyclability of InCycle® cups, coupled with their lightweight nature, means that MicroGREEN is producing some of the greenest cups available, while being a low cost producer at the same time.

MicroGREEN is currently focusing on cups for airlines, food processors and quick serve restaurants, but InCycle® products for packaging broadly address a $25 billion market. The company's commercial production facility in Arlington, Washington, has the design capacity to convert at least 20 million pounds of #1 PET (water bottle plastic) per year.

"To keep succeeding and growing, we know that we've got to continue developing close strategic partnerships," explains Malone. "Collaboration is a genuine and integral part of MicroGREEN's culture, so we feel confident and comfortable that we'll keep working productively and constructively with other key players in the market."

About MicroGREEN

MicroGREEN is an innovative plastics company that uses its patented Ad-air® technology to create its own InCycle® brand of insulating hot and cold cups made from expanded, recycled PET (recycled water bottles). The production process makes PET lightweight without using chemical blowing agents, and, because the plastic is not chemically altered, it can be recycled at the end of its life. The technology lowers the raw material cost and reduces the weight of plastic products while improving functionality. By using recycled content and insuring that InCycle® products are recyclable, MicroGREEN is contributing to the groundswell of support for #1 PET resin, the most widely recycled plastic in the world.

MicroGREEN has been awarded a Silver prize by prestigious DuPont Awards for Packaging Innovation, a Silver prize for manufacturing by the Green Washington Award, and it was named one of the best companies to work for in Washington by Seattle Business magazine. The company was also named to the 2012 Washington Green 50 list, and has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal's Innovation Awards as well as awards from Green Washington and Washington Manufacturing in previous years.

MicroGREEN Polymers Inc. was founded in Washington State by graduate researchers at the University of Washington and funded by angel investors and Washington Research Foundation in 2006. MicroGREEN was started with the belief that recycling will only live up to its full potential with the creation of value-added end products that are produced through environmentally responsible manufacturing. With its innovative technology and products, MicroGREEN is committed to helping grow the market for recycled products. More information can be found at www.microgreeninc.com and www.incycle.info

About the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon includes more than 27 Tribes and Bands from western Oregon, southwestern Washington and northern California that were relocated to the Grand Ronde Reservation between 1855-1875.

These Tribes and Bands include the Rogue River, Umpqua, Chasta, Kalapuya, Molalla, Salmon River, Tillamook and Nestucca Indians.

The Tribes' ceded lands in Oregon extend from the California border to southwestern Washington, and reach from the Cascade Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.

For more information about the Tribe, visit www.grandronde.org.

Media inquiries:
Steven Gottlieb
[email protected]
206-427-9591

For further information, MicroGREEN:
Chris Jacobs
Vice President, Marketing and Product Development
360-435-7400 x120
[email protected]

For further information, The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde:
Titu Asghar
Director of Economic Development
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
(503) 879-1315
jilene.mercier @grandronde.org

SOURCE MicroGREEN Polymers, Inc.