Brightmark Energy narrows search for new plastic recycling plants

Brightmark Energy, a global waste solutions provider based in San Francisco, has announced that it is prioritizing its search for locations for its next advanced plastic recycling plants to key regions in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Texas. 

The company launched its nationwide search for new locations for its plastics recycling plants in November 2019.

According to a news release from Brightmark, the company wants to make its final site selection by the third quarter of 2020 and plans to have at least two sites ready to build by 2021. 

At the proposed facilities, the company’s plastics renewal technology will take postconsumer, single-stream plastics and convert them into ultra-low sulfur, diesel, naphtha and wax.

“The United States is facing a major plastics recycling shortfall,” says Brightmark CEO Bob Powell. “We’ve got a proven, unique, market-ready solution, which we are scaling up nationally to meet this demand. Communities are struggling with a deluge of contaminated plastics, and we have been overwhelmed with the level of interest in our solution from communities across the states. With recent events affecting all of our communities, we are excited to be investing in jobs and economic activity in our partner communities. I have spoken with multiple community leaders who have been enthusiastic to partner with Brightmark as we expand our plastics renewal locations.”

Brightmark reports that it intends to invest about $500 million to $1 billion at each site location. Each plant will process hundreds of thousands of tons of plastics each year.

During the first phase of Brightmark’s site search process, more than 100 communities nationwide participated in an open “indication of interest” process. CBRE Group Inc., a commercial real estate services and investment firm based in Los Angeles, partnered with Brightmark to research these locations.

The next phase of Brightmark’s selection process will include a deeper dive into potential key regions and specific site locations in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and Texas. Ideal locations are those able to offer strong local, regional and state support for project development through incentives and improved plastic recycling programs; access to at least 200,000 tons per year of comingled plastic scrap; access to 30 to 100 acres of suitable land with excellent access to rail and highways; and natural gas and electric utility support for such a project.

Brightmark is currently completing construction of a $260 million plastics renewal facility in Ashley, Indiana, which will accept about 100,000 tons of plastics each year for conversion into new products. The plant is expected to begin producing fuels and wax later this year and will be operating at full capacity in early 2021. Feedstock for that facility will be sourced from Indiana, Ohio and the Chicago metro area.