Marion City Council invests in Fiberight’s waste-to-biofuel facility

Fiberight LLC is closer to constructing a $15 million (€11 million) facility at its existing ethanol plant, which is currently under renovation in Blairstown.

The facility, which will extract the organic material from waste and convert it into ethanol, has received an economic-development incentive worth up to $850,000 (€617,000) from Marion City Council.

On Thursday, the City Council agreed to provide the incentive to help the waste-to-biofuel company build its 50,000-square-foot facility that will be equipped to take 350 tonnes of waste a day.

Fiberight's investment will create new property taxes, a familiar economic-development incentive called tax increment financing (TIF), and this will be used to fund Marion's investment.

Lon Pluckhahn, Marion's city manager stated that the property taxes from Fiberight's investment will pay off the land purchase financing in eight to nine years. The repayment is likely to be $801,000 (€582,000), but the City Council has approved up to $850,000 in financing if the land-purchase price is higher than this figure, Pluckhahn emphasises.

Construction on the waste recycling, sorting and shredding facility is expected to begin in June and the firm hopes to complete the build by December.

Craig Stuart-Paul, chief executive officer of Fiberight expects to use approximately 80% of the contents of the city's waste stream, with the remaining 20% then taken to landfill.