Glass Act: Pace Glass Breaks Ground on World’s Largest Recycling Plant

By Anthony Birritteri, Editor-in-Chief On May 1, 2018

The owners of Pace Glass, Inc. and government officials gathered this morning in Andover Township, Sussex County, to break ground on what is slated to be the largest glass recycling facility in the world. The company is spending $55 million to build a 250,000-square-foot recycled glass processing plant on a 90-acre site it acquired for $750,000. Additionally, Pace Glass will extend the final segment of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway rail line, near the property, by 600 to 700 feet, so materials can be loaded and unloaded at the site, alleviating truck traffic on local roads and highways.

According to Pace Glass CEO George Valiotis, the facility will be fully built by June or July 2019. As a two-shift operation, it will create some 150 jobs for the area. Additionally, the company expects revenues to jump from $12 million annually – solely based on an existing one acre recycling plant in Jersey City, to $100 million to $130 million once the new plant has been operating for a full year.

Valiotis says it is not only the size of the facility that will make it the world’s largest recycling plant, but also the volume of glass it will handle. He said the United States recycles 6 million to 7 million tons of glass each year. The Andover facility is expected to process 800,000 tons. “Depending on how we operate the machines, we believe our output will be among the largest,” he said, adding that being located in the densely populated northeastern part of the country means there will be an ample supply of glass to be recycled.

Pace Glass recycles glass into highly refined cullet (small broken glass pieces), which is then re-melted back into common consumer and industrial products.  The company’s customers include the container industry and fiber glass manufacturers.

“We hope that what we are doing here will be a model for the rest of the country,” Valiotis said.

The company chose Andover due to the availability of land, the rail infrastructure, and its close location to major metropolitan cities. Andover Mayor Janis McGovern said she is thrilled to have the facility in the township. “It is another way of putting Andover (a town of 6,200 residents) on the map. We need good businesses and strong ratables,” she said, adding that the recycling of glass will reduce the amount of trash in area landfills. “This is a win-win for us, Pace and the environment.”

Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-5) said the project shows the power of the public and private sectors working together. “It’s the private sector that creates jobs and grows the economy. … We [government] are here to help it grow,” he said.

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