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The GEP Fuel & Energy plant will create enough jobs to employ about one in every four people in the tiny town of Camden.
Annie Ropeik/IPBSCarroll County will be home to a $350 million, first-of-its-kind recycling plant that will turn old plastic car parts into diesel fuel, officials announced Tuesday.
The GEP Fuel & Energy plant will employ about 250 people in Camden by 2020.
That represents about one job for every four Camden residents – something Jim Staton of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation noted at the packed factory announcement in the town’s community center.
“It’s fun to see everyone out here today,” he says. “I’m wondering if anybody’s watching the bank here in Camden, because it seems like everybody in town is here.”
Camden beat out Texas and Pennsylvania to house the plant. Proximity to rail service helped – this makes it cheaper to bring in old car parts from around the Midwest.
Right now, GEP executive vice president Troy Flowers says those plastics are winding up in landfills, which isn’t good for the environment.
“And we’re just tickled to death that that’ll hopefully be a thing of the past pretty soon,” he says.
The new plant will be the largest auto plastic recycling center in the country, and the first to convert bricks of that plastic into diesel fuel.
It’s getting a $2 million tax credit from the state for creating jobs.
Carroll County is also expected to grant GEP a 10-year, $14-million tax abatement – the largest incentive package in county history.
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