Leaders from Blue Polymers, LLC; Republic Services and the City of Buckeye, Arizona, broke ground on Blue Polymers’ latest innovative recycled plastics production facility, which will support sustainable packaging manufacturing throughout the Western United States. The 162,000 square foot facility is expected to create more than 60 highly skilled permanent jobs when it opens in the second half of 2025.
The Blue Polymers facility will specialize in recycled polyethylene, commonly found in milk jugs and laundry detergent bottles, and polypropylene, used in consumer packaging, such as margarine tubs and yogurt cups. These plastics will be processed and formulated into high-quality, drop-in recycled plastic solutions for the packaging industry.
Phoenix-based Republic Services, a joint venture partner in Blue Polymers, is developing a network of regional Polymer Center plastics recycling facilities. These centers, the first of their kind in North America, produce high-quality, color-sorted recycled plastics directly from Republic’s national curbside collection operations. Each Republic Services Polymer Center will be paired with a Blue Polymers facility; the Buckeye facility will process materials from Republic’s Las Vegas Polymer Center, which opened in late 2023.
Demand is rising for domestically sourced, high-quality recycled plastics from both voluntary sustainability commitments and state legislation. Many consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies are pledging to incorporate more recycled content into their packaging designs. At the same time, five states have implemented minimum recycled content requirements for single-use packaging. Republic’s Polymer Centers and Blue Polymers’ innovative facilities will help meet this demand.
Blue Polymers’ facilities aim to support true package-to-package circularity, with an annual production target of 300+ million pounds of recycled resins.