NORTHUMBERLAND, Pa. — A company that recycles plastic into chemicals plans to invest $1 billion in a new facility in Northumberland County, creating hundreds of jobs.
Encina, based in Texas, announced plans Thursday for the Point Township Circular Manufacturing Facility. The plant will take post-consumer plastic and recycle it into chemicals to make new plastic items, according to a release from the company.
The site for the plant is along Route 11 in Point Township.
"What we're going to do with that facility is take post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste and turn it into new feedstocks that can be used to make new plastics," explained David Roesser, the CEO of Encina.
Roesser says the project has been in the works for about a year and a half. He says the facility will process 450,000 tons of materials each year, saving them from landfills.
"There will be between 750 and 800 jobs, construction for the two years that the facility is under construction. Once it's operating 24/7, there will be 300 fairly high-paying jobs that will go with this facility," said Roesser.
"We're looking at over $2.3 billion worth of economic impact to our region from construction to all of the other things that are going to go into this facility," said Jennifer Wakeman, executive director of the economic development group DRIVE based in Danville.
Wakeman believes this facility will put central Pennsylvania on the map.
"In terms of being a global leader because of what they're doing, we have the advantage of, and here it is. There will be people coming to the region to see their facility, to study what they're doing, to understand how they're doing it because they have their own unique process of how they're making this happen."
Construction is expected to begin in the fall of this year, and the facility is expected to be fully operational by the fall of 2024.
Encina is hosting a community open house on Wednesday, May 11, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the American Legion Post #44 in Point Township.
The public can meet with Encina officials and learn more about the proposed facility. To register for the open house, visit encinapointtownship.com.
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