Last summer, Brightmark announced plans to build the world’s largest advanced plastics recycling and renewal plant in Macon-Bibb County, Georgia. Just this week, however, Macon-Bibb County Mayor Lester Miller has officially withdrawn his support.
They had planned to invest over $680 million in the new plant that would be a 5.3 million sq.ft. site.
The plant plans included a state-of-the-art proprietary plastics renewal process that sustainably recycles all plastic waste (Types 1-7) that has reached the end of its useful life. The company said that this includes items that can’t be readily be recycled (Types 3-7) such as plastic film, flexible packing, Styrofoam, plastic beverage cups, car seats and children’s toys.
The facility would have diverted 400,000 tons of plastic waste each year from landfills and incinerators and convert it into 64 million gallons of ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and 20 million gallons of wax.
Mayor Miller, in a letter addressed to Robby Fountain, chairman of the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority, wrote, “we cannot ignore the long-term safety concerns of this unproven process that have been raised in the last several weeks.” He stated, “If it costs you more energy, more waste, more pollution to get there, it’s simply not worth it for us.”
The Industrial Authority has been discussing signing off on $500 million in revenue bonds for Brightmark to start the project in 2023.
The mayor’s decision could be viewed as a win for environmental advocacy groups and citizens who raised questions about the possible pollution the plant could emit. The Georgia Water Coalition put Brightmark on their Dirty Dozen list for 2021, saying the proposed recycling plant poses a serious threat to the state’s water. Others feel this view is narrow-minded and doesn’t see the bigger picture, including the long-term benefits of such a process.
Brightmark offers a patented, closed loop technology that heats plastics until it’s vaporized into liquids. The process then condenses the plastic to turn into other plastics, wax and even diesel fuel.
“Plastic-to-fuel is kind of untested. We certainly don’t want to do something that would adversely affect our environment here in Macon-Bibb County, our clean air in Macon-Bibb County and certainly our waters here in Macon-Bibb County,” Miller declared.
Brightmark CEO Bob Powell said their technology “solves problems, not creates them.”
“We do not incinerate. In fact, our process won’t work if it is incinerated,” Powell said. “I won’t incinerate plastics because I think it’s a bad environmental answer.”
Powell claimed the plant would have minimal emissions similar to a medium-sized hospital.