AgroRenew breaks ground on $83M bioplastics facility
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowVincennes-based AgroRenew broke ground Wednesday on its $83 million facility designed to transform crop waste from Knox County melon farms into 100% biodegradable plastics.
The startup first announced plans for the nearly 200,000-square-foot facility in November, with the goal of creating single-use plastics such as straws and grocery bags that can fully break down in soil after just six months.
“Everything that’s going back into the soil or in a landfill situation, everything that’s breaking down is actually bio-based material, so there’s no chemicals; there’s no harm to the environment,” said AgroRenew co-founder and CEO Brian Southern.
The facility, to be built over four phases in the U.S. 41 Industrial Park, is expected employ more than 300 people when fully operational.
Southern told Business of Health Reporter Kylie Veleta that watermelon, pumpkin and cantaloupe farms in the Wabash Valley have already signed on to send their waste to AgroRenew.
“They’re just happy to have a way to do away with their their waste that they don’t sell,” he said. “And then we tell them, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, we’re going to also pay for this.’ They’re like, ‘Oh, where have you been all of our life?'”
The melon waste will be trucked to the facility, where AgroRenew’s unique process pulverizes, dehydrates and grinds the melon waste. At the end of the production line are the same small pellets that are traditionally used in the plastics industry, except these will be fully biodegradable.
The company says at full capacity, the facility will be able to produce more than 2 million pounds of plastic pellets per day and ship 300,000 tons of pellets annually.
The first phase of construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025, with the first test products rolling off the assembly line and being shipped shortly after that.
Southern said AgroRenew has already sold 100% of its product for the first few years as production ramps up. The company already has contracts with two major, though unnamed, customers.
“It’s just incredible that the demand for bioplastics is just going to continue to grow exponentially,” he said. “They’ve reached out and said, ‘We will buy your test product. That’s how desperately we need this product.'”
AgroRenew expects the facility to be fully operational in 2026. The company has plans to begin hiring in late summer for business operations, food science, engineering, quality, and production positions.
“We have the opportunity to retain talent in the community, as well as to attract people who may have left to pursue roles in science and engineering they couldn’t find here,” co-founder and Chief Science Officer Katie Southern said in written remarks. “We’re particularly hopeful that we’ll see an influx of local applicants who will choose to stay in Knox County or those who’ll be returning home.”
Brian Southern said the project will create not just a new revenue stream for local farmers, but a new opportunity for Vincennes.
“It’s one thing to build new facilities in Indianapolis, Lebanon, and West Lafayette where we have our LEAP communities and stuff. But to be able to build sustainable manufacturing in our rural communities—we have these cities all over our state that have had declining populations and limited economic impact—if more of what we’re doing can happen throughout the state, our whole state is going to thrive.”
