Blue Polymers breaks ground in Buckeye

Orlando, Fla.-based plastic recycler Blue Polymers broke ground on its Buckeye location yesterday.

The 162,000-square-foot facility, located at Turner Road and Maricopa County Road 85, will late next year and provide more than 60 permanent jobs, according to a press release from the company.

"We're thrilled to have Blue Polymers as part of Buckeye's future," reads a post from the Mayor's Office following the ground-breaking ceremony.

The Buckeye location is one of four regional recycled plastics production facilities currently being built by Blue Polymers in partnership with Republic Services.

"These centers produce high-quality, color-sorted recycled plastic feedstock directly from Republic’s national curbside collection business," reads the company's press release. "Each Republic Polymer Center will be linked with a Blue Polymers facility to promote plastics circularity and sustainable packaging."

Buckeye's facility will process feedstock from the Las Vegas Polymer Center. Blue Polymers specializes in processing polyethylene, found in products such as milk jugs and laundry detergent containers, and polypropylene, found in products such as margarine and yogurt containers. The plastics will be recycled into resin used for packaging.

"As demand rises for domestically sourced, high-quality recycled plastics, many consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies are committing to incorporating more recycled content into their packaging designs," reads the press release. "At the same time, five states have implemented minimum recycled content standards for single-use packaging. Blue Polymers’ facilities aim to support genuine package-to-package circularity, with an annual production target of 300+ million pounds of recycled resins."