After announcing in December 2022 it would locate a plant in Statesboro, plastics recycling company revalyu Resources broke ground at the 43-acre site Wednesday in Gateway Regional Industrial Park.
Executives from the German-owned company also said Wednesday that the original planned investment of $50 million was now more than $200 million to build a plant capable of recycling 200 million pounds of PET plastic per year.
Polyethylene terephthalate is generally referred to as PET when used to make plastic bottles for water and other beverages. Company officials say the Statesboro plant will recycle 100% post-consumer material at a rate of about 25 million bottles each day.
According to a release from revalyu, construction of phase one is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025 and will employ 71 people, with another 50 employees added in phase two, for a total of 121 jobs.
"Our first plant in the U.S. is a very important step for the expansion of our company,” said Jan van Kisfeld, managing director of revalyu. “Our existing and future US customers have a huge demand for our 100% recycled pellets, which are equivalent in quality to conventional oil-based PET pellets. This advanced recycling plant will serve our customers directly from the US, enabling quicker transportation time, lower cost and a smaller (carbon) footprint.”
revalyu has been supplying its product – chemically recycled PET “chips” or pellets that can be made into new consumer products – to manufacturers in the United States for more than six years.
Speaking in Statesboro in January, van Kisfeld said the company’s choice of the Statesboro and Bulloch site followed “three months of intensive search” and also some serious negotiations with the Development Authority of Bulloch County.
"revalyu has a respected reputation for their plastics recycling process and the positive effects it will have on the environment,” said Benjy Thompson, CEO of the Development Authority. “We are thrilled that our region will host the first U.S. site for revalyu and their truly innovative technology. In addition, we look forward to the positive impacts that revalyu will have on our community."
Thompson said revalyu is the first German-owned company to locate in Bulloch County.
Originally called perPETual, revalyu was founded in 2007 by Vivek Tandon, Ph.D. Tandon attended Wednesday’s groundbreaking.
The company’s processing plant is in India and is being expanded to process 240 metric tons of PET a day. The U.S. plant here will be able to process 100 metric tons daily, Tandon said in January.
“We thank Bulloch County for their incredible support, we could not have chosen a better partner for our international expansion,” Tandon said.
Bulloch’s boom
revalyu’s is one of five Bulloch County industrial plant site selections announced by the DABC in the past 20 months. Together, the five companies promise to create, eventually, more than 1,500 jobs at these sites.
Here are the other four plants:
• Aspen Aerogels, announced Feb. 17, 2022. Construction is underway on the 90-acre site in Bruce Yawn Commerce Park. The company’s commitment is for a $325 million investment and at least 250 manufacturing jobs. Although not linked to the Hyundai factory, Aspen’s plant will make aerogel insulation, which is used in and around electric vehicle batteries.
• Ecoplastic America Corporation, a supplier of injection-molded plastic automotive body parts to Hyundai Motor Group, intends to build a $205 million plant, promised to create 456 jobs, phased in over eight years, on a site owned by the DABC south of Statesboro. Site preparation is underway.
• Ajin USA, supplier of metal auto body parts to Hyundai, has committed to invest $317 million and eventually employ 630 people at its Joon Georgia plant. The site is 83 acres, beside the Aspen Aerogels site in Bruce Yawn Commerce Park.
• Hanon Systems manufactures a variety of automotive air control equipment. The company's products include air conditioners, heaters, cooling modules, compressors, radiators, fans, evaporators and condensers and will be a tier-one supplier to the Hyundai Metaplant building EV cars in Ellabell. The company has committed to investing $40 million in building a factory in Gateway Industrial Park and creating 160 jobs.