Chemical recycling firm Brightmark LLC is building a $680 million facility in Georgia for processing waste plastics and says it will be the largest such plant in the world.
The June 7 announcement from the San Francisco-based company said the new plant in Macon, Ga., its second, will have the capacity to divert 400,000 tons of plastic waste.
The statement did not say when the Georgia facility would start operating, and a spokesman said Brightmark would provide a date later.
"Our advanced recycling facility will be the world's largest and will utilize our proven plastics renewal technology to advance our mission of reimagining waste, while supporting economic development in the region," said Bob Powell, Brightmark founder and CEO.
The company said the Macon plant would convert plastics into 64 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and naphtha blend stocks, which can be a feedstock for plastics, as well as 20 million gallons of wax.
It said it's working with suppliers of waste plastic in the region to secure feedstock agreements for the facility and expects to close that process by the end of the year. It said it's open to both post-consumer and post-industrial plastics.
The company said its process can take all types of mixed plastic waste, including materials that are hard to recycle with traditional technologies like plastic film, flexible packaging, expanded polystyrene, beverage cups, plastic toys and car seats.
The company has a smaller facility it's building in Ashley, Ind., that it says will have a capacity to process 100,000 tons of waste plastic a year when it's fully operational this year. It said the $260 million plant will be able to produce 18 million gallons of fuel and naphtha blend stocks, and 6 million gallons of wax.
The company said the Georgia plant, which sits on a 5.3 million-square-foot site, would create more than 100 jobs.
Brightmark said its technology turns 93 percent of the waste plastic into new products.