Brightmark hires new plant manager for Indiana plant

Brightmark, San Francisco,has announced that it has hired northeast Indiana native Jason Sasse as the plant manager for its Ashley, Indiana, plastics renewal plant. Once fully operational in the coming months, the advanced plastic recycling plant will convert 100,000 tons of postuse plastics per year into products like fuels and wax, with Sasse at the helm of the Ashley team.

As plant manager, Sasse will focus on implementing, facilitating and maintaining the safe operation of the Brightmark Ashley Plastics Renewal Facility, the company says in a press release. Sasse comes to Brightmark with more than 30 years of experience in chemical manufacturing, supporting the safe production of specialty chemicals and gases used in everything from daily products to liquid hydrogen used in space shuttle launches. Most recently, he led a multimillion-dollar capital expansion project for a chemical plant, from original scope development through design, construction and startup.

“Jason is a seasoned leader with a track record of building and leading high performing, inclusive teams that prioritize safety at plants like ours,” says Bob Powell, CEO of Brightmark. “We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber to help get Brightmark up and running in Ashley.”   

Sasse’s hiring comes as the company ramps up testing at the new facility, where it is now producing plastic pellets from plastics that are traditionally impossible to recycle. Those pellets will later be transformed into ultra-low-sulfur diesel, naphtha blends and commercial wax via Brightmark’s proprietary plastics renewal process. The company is actively hiring for additional recycling jobs in northeast Indiana.