$400M plastics plant set to open in Eloy, promising $1B economic impact
A $400 million plastics “upcycling” facility that promises more than 100 jobs, hundreds of construction positions and more than $1 billion in projected economic impact is set to open this year in Eloy.
The project will position the city as Freepoint Eco-Systems’ Southwest hub for advanced recycling. The Connecticut-based company develops large-scale “advanced recycling” plants that turn waste plastic into an oil-like feedstock for petrochemical manufacturers.
During a Feb. 9 work session, representatives from Freepoint Eco-systems walked Eloy City Council through detailed plans for a 44-acre facility in the Eloy Industrial Park that would use high-heat “pyrolysis” to convert hard-to-recycle plastic into an oil-like product sold back to petrochemical companies.
An economic impact analysis presented at the meeting projects more than $1 billion in total regional output and more than $19 million in combined state, county and local tax revenues over 10 years.
The project, unveiled by the Arizona Commerce Authority in 2023, per previous Business Journal reporting, is expected to create about 100 full-time “circular economy” jobs once it’s operating, along with about 250 jobs during the buildout. Freepoint and state officials have said commercial operations are expected to begin in the first half of 2026.
Freepoint executives said the Eloy plant will complement a smaller facility near Columbus, Ohio.
That site in Hebron, Ohio, started up in 2024 and can handle about 175 million pounds of plastic a year. The Eloy plant is designed to handle more than double that, processing roughly 400 million pounds annually and drawing material from across Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado.
The recycling plant marks the latest significant project in fast-growing Pinal County, which is rushing to add housing units as its population approaches 500,000 people. Major recent developments in the county include LG Energy Solution’s battery factory in Queen Creek; Lucid’s ever-growing footprint south of Phoenix; Apex Motor Club’s sprawling motorsports venue in Maricopa; and semiconductor supplier KPPC Advanced Chemicals’ chemical manufacturing campus in Casa Grande.
What’s more, investors are assembling thousands of acres in and around Eloy for future renewable energy and data center developments.
How the Freepoint plastic recycling facility will work
At the core of Freepoint’s Eloy facility is a planned 350,000-square-foot warehouse that would contain automated lines and workers to sort, shed and prepare incoming waste. The company says it will target polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene – plastics often found in grocery bags, films, buckets and some consumer packaging – that are typically uneconomical for traditional mechanical recyclers to process.
The materials that are not compatible with the process, such as PET drink bottles, PVC, nylon and flame-retardant plastics, would be pulled out. PET bottles and aluminum cans could be sold to other recyclers, while nonrecyclable contaminants and items such as textiles, shoes and mixed trash would be compacted and trucked to landfills.
The prepared plastic feedstock would be densified into cubes or pellets and carried by conveyor into four large rotary kilns outside the warehouse. The company says 85% of what goes into the kilns will exit as a hot hydrocarbon vapor, which is then cooled and condensed into a liquid stream the company sells as recycled feedstock to major petrochemical companies.
Freepoint says about 5% emerges as a carbon-rich char with potential uses in industries such as rubber and cement. Light gases, such as methane and ethane, that cannot be condensed into liquid are routed back to fuel the kilns, providing about 10% of the process energy.
The project has already cleared important permitting and planning steps. The city approved Freepoint’s site plan in December 2025 after staff review by the Planning and Zoning Department, Public Works and the Eloy Fire District, along with a neighborhood meeting and evaluation of traffic, utilities, grading and landscaping.
Pinal County Air Quality Control District issued a Class II minor-source permit for the plant in 2021, after the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality delegated permitting authority to the county. That permit treats the facility as a recycling plant rather than a waste combustor and sets throughput limits, emissions caps and control-equipment requirements.
Freepoint submitted a modification request in November 2025 based on learnings from their Ohio facility, saying design changes would allow more of the hydrocarbon vapors to be captured as product while lowering volatile organic compound emissions per ton of plastic processed.
Freepoint estimates the plant will receive about 30 inbound truckloads of plastic a day. The finished product would move out by rail in tank cars.
The company is working with Union Pacific on a three-track rail layout to minimize blocked crossings. This would allow plant staff to load and stage cars inside the site and have trains quickly drop off empties and pick up full strings. Freepoint said it will also build internal roads through the industrial park and fund rail mainline upgrades that could support future industrial development in Eloy.
Freepoint officials said the Eloy facility would mirror the Ohio workforce, with skilled process operators, mechanics and control-room staff running the kilns and condensation units; semi-skilled employees overseeing sorting and quality control in the warehouse; and equipment operators handling skid steers, loaders and forklifts. Freepoint said it is exploring partnerships with Central Arizona College and other institutions to line up training programs.
Some residents and environmental advocates urged the city to weigh the economic benefits of the Freeport facility against potential environmental risks, citing notices of violation at Freepoint’s Ohio plant and broader questions about the advanced recycling sector.
The company acknowledged early “start-up issues” in Ohio but said the facility is now shipping product and that Eloy’s design incorporates improvements. They framed the projects as a way to keep plastic out of landfills and offset demand for virgin fossil fuels.
The Feb. 9 session was informational only, and Council did not take a vote.