Plastics

Republic Services to build integrated plastic recycling facility in Las Vegas

Photo: Recycling Today archives

Republic Services Inc., Phoenix, has announced plans to construct an integrated plastics recycling facility in Las Vegas. The company says it will address increasing demand from consumer brands and packaging manufacturers for recycled plastic. 

“Packaged goods manufacturers have set ambitious targets to use more postconsumer content in their products, but the current supply of recycled plastics falls short,” says Republic President and CEO Jon Vander Ark. 

Dubbed the First Polymer Center, the facility is expected to open in 2023. According to a news release from the company, the facility is expected to produce more than 100 million pounds of recycled plastics annually, including 100-percent postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flake to be delivered to the food-grade marketplace to enable bottle-to-bottle circularity.  

“The facility has an inbound design capacity of 160 million pounds,” says Pete Keller, Republic’s vice president of recycling and sustainability. “However, we anticipate processing less than that during initial ramp-up.” 

The facility will handle material from Republic’s MRFs in the West, where there is increased demand for recycled content because of new laws in California and Washington.  

“Republic will mainly handle material from its recycling facilities in the western part of the U.S., but the site will also have the capacity for third-party volume,” Keller adds. 

Engineering work for the facility has been completed and applications for permits for the site were submitted, he says. The facility will be built on an existing structure that will be expanded and retrofitted.  

Keller says Germany-based Krones will provide a turnkey system that includes components from multiple technology providers.

Republic plans to build up to three more facilities like the First Polymer Center in regions that will enable it to provide nationwide coverage. The facilities are expected to be operational by 2025, Keller says.