Colorado-based alternative fuel company to hire 45 at new $10 million factory in Plant City
Published: September 20, 2018
Updated: September 20, 2018 at 11:53 AM
PLANT CITY — Alternative fuel firm MLMC Florida will open a $10 million factory near the Hillsborough-Polk county line and will create 45 new jobs paying an average salary of at least $58,383 a year, officials said Thursday.
Based in Parker, Colo., MLMC looked around the Midwest and Southeast for its new manufacturing facility, but Hillsborough County and Plant City stood out, chief operating officer Jim LaDue said in an announcement released through the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corp.
“Most importantly, we were looking for a community that was business-friendly and had the workforce we needed to succeed,” LaDue said.
The state of Florida, Hillsborough County and Plant City offered a total of $225,000 in incentives — $180,000 from the state and $22,500 each from the city and county — that MLMC will be eligible to receive after it makes its investment and creates the new jobs.
“Thrilled,” Plant City Mayor Rick Lott said. “Advanced manufacturing is what we’re all about, and MLMC’s alternative fuel product is helping us become less dependent on fossil fuels. This is a great project all around.”
MLMC — its full name is Materials Lifecycle Management Co. — turns non-recyclable coated paper and cardboard, Styrofoam, plastic films, wood materials and other process or packaging materials into an energy-dense fuel it calls Enviro-Fuelcubes.
The cubes are engineered to augment or take the place of fossil fuels such as coal. Moreover, the company has developed its own patented fuel injection technology to deliver the cubes into burners at power plants or rotary kilns that make cement and lime.
MLMC will open its new, 103,000-square-foot factory at 2067 S County Line Road. There, an expected 150,000-plus tons of manufacturing process and packaging waste will be pressed into the fuel cubes. The new jobs will be in production, maintenance, sales, logistics, control room operation and administration.
MLMC, whose web address is “notwaste.com,” said the cubes are the first fuel of its kind to receive a non-waste designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The company says it has processed 300,000 tons of materials that otherwise would have gone into landfills or garbage incinerators into 225,000 tons of fuel, displacing 200,000 tons of coal along the way.
EDC officials said MLMC is the latest manufacturer to launch operations in Hillsborough, which has more than 2,800 manufacturing firms employing 63,000 workers, joining Liftup, Resistacap Energy Products and Advanced Airfoil Components, a joint venture of Siemens and Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corporation.
“Manufacturing has a long history in Hillsborough County,” Hillsborough County Commission chairwoman Sandra Murman said, “and continues to be an area of focus for us.”
