A joint venture between Republic Services Inc. and Ravago Group to produce post-consumer resins will open a second facility in Buckeye, Ariz.
The 162,000-square-foot location operated by the joint venture called Blue Polymers LLC is expected to begin operations during the second half of 2025 and employ 60.
The Arizona location joins a previously announced Indianapolis, Ind., site as the first Blue Polymers location. The companies broke ground in Indiana in November 2023.
Blue Polymers locations will take plastics initially processed at Republic's recycling sortation locations called Polymer Centers. Instead of baling plastics and sending the material along to outside plastics processors, a common practice at material recovery facilities (MRFs) run by waste management firms, Republic has decided to get more deeply involved in reprocessing itself.
Bales from Republic MRFs are sent to the company's Polymer Center in Las Vegas where they processed. Once the Buckeye site is operational, output from Las Vegas site will go to Blue Polymers for further processing into resin that will then be used to make new products, including packaging.
"Blue Polymers will specialize in processing polyethylene and polypropylene recycled products suitable for sustainable packaging and other applications requiring increased recycled content," the companies said in announcing the Arizona location. "Polyethylene, commonly found in milk jugs and laundry detergent containers, and polypropylene, used in consumer packaging like margarine tubs and yogurt containers, will be processed and formulated into high-quality, drop-in solutions for the packaging industry."
The plan is to create a network of Polymer Centers, run by Republic Services, and associated Blue Polymer locations, operated through the joint venture between Republic Services and Ravago, to serve the country.
"Blue Polymers' facilities aim to support genuine package-to-package circularity, with an annual production target of 300-plus million pounds of recycled resins," the joint venture said in revealing the new Arizona site.