Brightmark Energy, a San Francisco-based waste and energy development company, says it has closed a $260 million financing package to build the nation’s first commercial-scale plastics-to-fuel plant in northeast Indiana.
A groundbreaking is scheduled in Ashley for next month.
The financing for “Brightmark Energy Ashley Indiana” includes $185 million in Indiana green bonds underwritten by Goldman Sachs & Co. As part of the financing closure, Brightmark has become the controlling owner of RES Polyflow, the Ohio-based energy technology company that innovated the process for converting plastics directly into transportation fuel and other products.
The Ashley facility will be the first of its kind to take mixed waste single-use plastics and convert them into usable products at commercial scale, the company says in a statement.
“We are excited about the market’s confidence in the validity of this technology to economically convert single-use plastics for new uses,” said Bob Powell, Chief Executive Officer of Brightmark Energy and of RES Polyflow. “This technology provides a strong incentive for diverting single use plastics away from oceans, waterways, communities and landfills by creating reusable value. Plastic pollution is such a pressing global issue, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to provide a solution.”
RES Polyflow’s plastics-to-fuel process sustainably recycles waste that has reached the end of its useful life – including items that cannot readily be recycled, like plastic film, flexible packing, styrofoam and children’s toys – directly into useful products, like fuels and wax.
