Business Depot Ogden is home to many fascinating businesses and Novolex is one of them. Novolex produces can liners, or in more simple terms, trash bags. However, these aren’t just trash bags; they are made from recycled materials and can be recycled again– something that Novolex specializes in.

Novolex is headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina, and employs 7,000 people in 46 locations – 42 nationwide and 6 international spots. Ogden is one of those places and Novolex loves doing business here. The Ogden facility currently has about 75 employees.

Phil Rozenski is the Senior Director of Sustainability for Novolex. “Ogden is a really good location for us. It’s a wonderful crossroads located in a great intersection of highways,” Rozenski said. Plus, the access to the rail lines is really amazing, he added. The other bonus is the fact that the whole state is business-friendly, Rozenski said. He sees a real future in the Ogden location. “We can forecast here. It’s a good environment. In some states it seems like it’s their pastime to create regulations and I can’t see six months in the future, but not Utah,” he said with enthusiasm. “It’s a wonderful time and a wonderful place to be in Utah,” he said.

Heritage Bag® was founded in 1973 as a manufacturer of plastic trash bags, can liners and food bags sold to institutional and commercial customers. Today, it’s one of the leading institutional can liner producers in North America, has nearly 800 employees and operates six world-class manufacturing sites, with strong, long term relations with its distribution partners. Heritage’s products serve the health care, food service and hospitality, industrial, education, once building, building services and transportation markets.

According to press materials from Novolex, Heritage Bag® was founded in 1973 as a manufacturer of plastic trash bags, can liners and food bags sold to institutional and commercial customers. Now it’s one of the leading institutional can liner producers in North America. There are six other manufacturers of the liners like Ogden’s facility. The unique thing about the liners is they are sustainable and made with a large percentage of recycled materials and because of that, can continue in the recycling process after use.

The trash liners aren’t the only thing Novolex produces, though. They make both paper and plastic grocery bags, a variety of food service packaging products, even the packaging that goes around cubes of butter. All of these items are made to be sustainable, yet also affordable. “The key is that we are focused on ways to make these products equal in price to our incumbents, but the allure is we are using sustainable and recycled products,” Rozenski said.

“We really want to educate people on what we do and help people to know we are looking outside the box,” he noted. “Most people don’t know that plastic grocery bags are just as good for the environment as paper because of the weight being carried,” Rozenski said. “They both are a better choice depending on what you are carrying,” he said.

“When you see a gray or tan (plastic) bag you know it’s made from recycled materials,” he noted. The same with paper bags – the darker colors are made from recycled materials and are cheaper to produce because the bags don’t have to be dyed. “It’s so much about offering choices and education,” he said.

Right now, the Ogden site only produces the liners. Rozenski isn’t sure when or if the site will expand, he only knows that things are going extremely well there now.

“We are a company that is growing as a whole and the Ogden facility is a very strong part of that family,” he said.