Plastics Recycler Developing $950M Georgia “Circularity Center”

Brightmark plans to develop a 2.5 million-square-foot circularity center in Thomaston, Georgia, an hour NE of Columbus. The facility, which will cost $950 million to build, will have the capacity to repurpose over 400,000 tons of plastic per year. Brightmark’s system takes discarded plastic content and converts it into materials to create new circular plastic products, diverting waste otherwise bound for landfills, incinerators, and waterways.

Brightmark’s Plastics Renewal® solution repurposes existing material on a large scale, including hard-to-recycle plastics from a variety of sources, such as industrial sites, manufacturing facilities, and schools. The company also works with material recovery facilities (MRF) to capture post-consumer plastic. Brightmark then converts these plastics into materials used to create new circular products that can be reused, reducing the need for new plastic.

Brightmark intends to invest $20 million in additive infrastructure projects, including upgrades to utilities, roadway improvements, rail access extensions, and other necessary resources. The facility will create 200 jobs.