Photo courtesy of Omega Construction
Omega Construction has started earth work and preparing the footprint for a new recycling plant from revalyu Resources, being constructed at the Gateway Regional Park.
revalyu Resources, a German multinational firm that recycles plastics and other materials, is investing $200 million to build a plastic recycling facility in Statesboro, Ga., that will be able to recycle close to 200 million lbs. post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) annually.
The project was made public last December. The facility, being constructed at the Gateway Regional Park, is the company's first in the United States and the first phase of a long-term project. The site occupies 43 acres.
Project's Start
Current efforts are concentrating on earth work and site prep for the construction, which is based on several phases.
Omega Construction is off to a fast start. Trevor Jeans, Omega's assistant project manager, explained that the site had previously cleared and graded.
Phase 1 will see the construction of the recycling facility, various support buildings, underground infrastructure, roads and surface parking.
"The lot sat unused for some time prior to the start of construction," he said. "No existing buildings have been demolished. Site prep is focused on stripping topsoil and building up the building pad. As of today, we have stone down on the pad and we are working on getting our parking lots and roadways graded. We are expecting to have our site prep wrapped up in a couple of weeks. This includes the warehouse building pad, process tower pad, and all roadways."
Photo courtesy of Omega Construction
In regards to the earth work, Jeans explained that "the main goal is to get the warehouse building pad to grade and stoned. Within that process, we are excavating dirt out of the retention ponds and truck court for the on-site fill material. The material coming from the ponds was primarily placed at the building pad, then the rest of the dirt has been going to areas as required. The biggest issue with this site is the soils. They are very sensitive to moisture. In most cases, one would see the fill material be placed in 12-inch lifts. Due to the sensitivity and compaction needs, we are placing fill material in at 4-inch to 6-inch lifts to achieve compaction. Outside of that issue, we have not encountered any other issues on site. The bottom of the foundations are ranging from 2 feet below the finished floor to 7 feet, 6 inches below finished floor."
The site has been laid out around the building pad.
"We are working on other areas such as the truck court," said Jeans. "From there, we will lay out other scopes within the project off of tasks on site."
For the earth work and site prep, equipment operators are using a John Deere 350G excavator, a Cat D4 bulldozer, a Cat 825C compactor, a Volvo smooth drum roller and a Case IH 620 tractor pulling two pans behind it for mass grading.
The ongoing work has a growing work force as operations intensify.
"Our grader has kept around five to six people on the job to get the grading done," said Jeans.
The amounts of soil and other materials being excavated are considerable.
The site is large enough for the general contractor to set up areas for the storage of materials, layout yards and the parking of equipment.
When construction ramps up for the various structures, infrastructure, and roads, more equipment and crews will be brought on board.
Local and regional subcontractors will be helping with the project.
Project Background
Officials from the company, the Development Authority of Bulloch County and Georgia State Representatives were in attendance for the Oct.10 ground breaking ceremony.
The facility employs the very glycolysis technology which has already processed six billion plastic bottles in India.
The glycolysis process is based on having enzymes to break down plastics.
"Due to its unique recycling process based on glycolysis, the quality of revalyu's recycled PET products enables its customers to replace conventional oil-based PET with revalyu's more sustainable rPET," states the company's press release. "Compared to conventional PET, revalyu's rPET is produced using 75 percent less water, 91 percent less energy, and saves around 0.7 barrels of oil and 0.2 cubic meters of landfill space per-2,000 pounds of PET recycled."
Jan van Kisfeld, revalyu's managing director, points out that the company intends to recycle 25 million plastic bottles daily at the Georgia facility, which is expected to start operating in the Summer of 2025
Photo courtesy of Omega Construction
"Our first plant in the U.S. is a very important step for the expansion of our company," he said. "Our existing and future U.S. customers have a huge demand for our 100 percent recycled pellets, which are equivalent in quality to conventional oil-based PET pellets. This advanced recycling plant will serve our customers directly from the U.S., enabling quicker transportation time, lower cost and a smaller CO2 footprint."
The company first converts used PET bottles into sustainable monomers, which are then filtered to remove all impurities before being re-polymerized.
"The result is a very pure, sustainable rPET polymer which can be used to directly replace PET polymers produced from petrochemicals such as oil," states revalyu's press release.
"At present the company sells 100 percent recycled PET pellets and filament yarns to over 60 repeat customers in over 15 countries."
The recycled material can be used for textiles, upholstery, polyester carpet fiber, industrial strapping, clothing and even new plastic bottles
Vivek Tandon, who founded revalyu, noted: "Used PET plastic can now be efficiently, profitably and easily recycled again and again without degradation of quality. Our already commercialized revolutionary process will transform the PET plastic industry as we know it. In the years to come, less and less PET will be manufactured from oil as it is replaced by high quality recycled material. We thank Bulloch County for their incredible support, we could not have chosen a better partner for our international expansion."
Benjy Thompson, CEO of the Development Authority of Bulloch County, welcomes the investment.
"revalyu has a respected reputation for their plastics recycling process and the positive effects it will have on the environment," he said. "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."
The facility will employ 71 people in Phase One and another 50 people in Phase Two, for a total of 121 jobs. The Heraeus Group, a family-owned global Fortune 500 technology company, purchased revalyu in 2021. CEG
Irwin Rapoport
A journalist who started his career at a weekly community newspaper, Irwin Rapoport has written about construction and architecture for more than 15 years, as well as a variety of other subjects, such as recycling, environmental issues, business supply chains, property development, pulp and paper, agriculture, solar power and energy, and education. Getting the story right and illustrating the hard work and professionalism that goes into completing road, bridge, and building projects is important to him. A key element of his construction articles is to provide readers with an opportunity to see how general contractors and departments of transportation complete their projects and address challenges so that lessons learned can be shared with a wider audience.
Rapoport has a BA in History and a Minor in Political Science from Concordia University. His hobbies include hiking, birding, cycling, reading, going to concerts and plays, hanging out with friends and family, and architecture. He is keen to one day write an MA thesis on military and economic planning by the Great Powers prior to the start of the First World War.
Read more from Irwin Rapoport here.
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