A planned South Carolina processing facility will shred, wash and pelletize a variety of scrap plastics with an emphasis on post-industrial material, a company leader has confirmed to Plastics Recycling Update.
Green Tech Solution, financed by Chinese investment firm Tianjin Sheng Xin Non-Financing Guarantee Co., plans to process hundreds of millions of pounds of scrap plastic per year, company CEO Richard Yang said in an interview.
The $75 million Blacksburg, S.C. facility is slated to come on-line early next year. The company is currently looking for buyers and sellers to work with. Green Tech, which will also handle scrap electronics and some metals, is interested in talking to companies about new technologies that could be installed in the facility.
“We are open to all the options,” Yang said.
The Green Tech operation, sited about halfway between Charlotte, N.C. and Spartanburg, S.C., is located in a 380,000-square-foot building that sits on 62 acres. The building is currently being renovated and upgraded, and it is slated to become operational in early 2019. It was announced earlier this month.
Green Tech is one of several recent Chinese investments in U.S. recycling infrastructure.
Tackling plastics
Green Tech’s plastics processing operation will focus on post-industrial plastics but will also process some post-consumer e-plastics. It will buy post-industrial PET, HDPE and PP, and it will purchase engineered plastics such as ABS.
“We are working with two industry veterans who already have facilities in different states,” Yang explained.
The company will shred, wash and pelletize the plastic at the Green Tech facility. The plastic processing line will not open until at least mid-2019, Yang said, because of its size.
“You’ve got to have volumes to make money on plastics,” he said.
The facility has already begun processing other types of scrap material including electronics.
Yang, who also serves as president of the Carolinas Chinese Chamber of Commerce, has helped several Chinese companies invest in North and South Carolina over the last six years.
South Carolina is particularly attractive for investment due to government incentives, as well as the local labor force, Yang explained. The Green Tech facility will create 200 jobs when fully operational.
“I try to take them to those high unemployment areas where people need jobs,” Yang said.
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