Metal Recycler Investing in Fort Wayne
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A newly-formed international metal recycling firm is bringing a major project to Fort Wayne. The city says Exurban USA Inc. will invest $300 million to build a new facility in the Adams Township Industrial Park and create about 200 full-time jobs.
The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission has approved a purchase agreement for Exurban to acquire 76 acres for the metal recycling facility. The city says the company will begin the site engineering and permitting process, which is expected to take about one year.
During the commission’s meeting Monday, co-owner Wes Anderson said Indiana was an ideal location.
“I think there’s a lot of synergies with some of the other recycling companies that are in Indiana,” said Anderson. “There’s a huge market for copper and other electronic scrap recycling, and we really thought Indiana is a great place to put this facility. We looked all over the country and it was kind of down to a couple of locations, and when we found this Adams Center Road property…we felt like this property was a really great fit for us.”
The facility will be used for recycling electronic scrap materials that come from products such as computer chips, circuit boards and wiring, among others. Anderson says the company’s process refines the electronic metals and refines them for reuse.
“One of the key opportunities we saw was that a lot of these metals currently are being sent overseas and as a result, the price for the end user products goes up for consumers. So, this is kind of a way to make sure that the metals we dispose of in the U.S. actually stay here and we get to use them again.”
The new jobs associated with the facility will come with an average wage of $50,000 to $70,000, according to the city.
Once all of the permitting is in place, construction is projected to take up to two years to complete.