Brightmark's plant in Ashley, Indiana, is the first of its kind in the US to convert plastic waste into usable products, like wax and eco-friendly fuel, on a commercial scale. The company hopes its technology can help solve the growing problem of plastic waste.

San Francisco-based waste solutions company Brightmark LLC is attacking both challenges. Today they announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a partnership to construct a commercial-scale plastics renewal plant in South Korea with Seoul-based international petrochemical company SK Global Chemical.

Brightmark Energy LLC is planning to build a factory in Georgia that will convert Styrofoam cups and other plastic waste into fuel and chemicals. The $680 million plant will be the world’s biggest of its type, the company said in a statement on Monday. When completed, the facility will process 400,000 tons of trash into 64 million gallons of diesel and naphtha, as well as 20 million gallons of wax annually.

By 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than marine life. And plastic has a notoriously long life in landfills. We meet entrepreneurs discovering new ways to retrieve plastic from our waterways, turning it into fuel or back into plastic again. Others look to reduce single-use plastic in our daily lives, by working on alternative materials.