The Longview site was selected due to synergies with existing infrastructure and operations, favorable energy supply and footprint, and access to western and central U.S. feedstock pools. The location provides enough space for on-site renewable energy. We also know the talent pool in this area is strong. We have incredibly talented team members already working at the site who will be instrumental in this project
The investment includes operations that will prepare mixed plastic waste for processing, Eastman’s next-generation methanolysis unit to depolymerize waste, and a polymer facility to create virgin-quality materials for packaging and textiles.
With the expanded scope of the project to include thermal batteries and solar energy, we currently estimate the project to be approximately $1.2 billion before incentives. We’re still early in the engineering process and working through significant inflation in capital costs.
We’ll have the capacity to recycle approximately 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste. The polymer production will be greater than this amount and dependent on the product mix.
The investment is expected to bring over 200 full-time, high-paying jobs to the Longview community in addition to approximately 1,000 temporary construction jobs during site development and construction of the facility.
Eastman was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for award negotiations of up to $375 million in investment to accelerate the demonstration of industry-leading, low-carbon-intensity PET with this project. Reaching a collaborative agreement with the DOE enables expansion of the project scope to include the deployment of thermal heat batteries, on-site solar and our next-generation technology. This scope achieves a step-change improvement in decarbonizing PET production.
Eastman is one of 33 companies selected for these award negotiations.
Through the Branches of Hope initiative, Eastman plans to support the formalization of Branches of Hope as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with its own executive director and program director. The initiative will also include remediation and renovation of an underutilized community building in south Longview to create a sustainable access point for centralized community services — provided by Branches of Hope partners. We’ll continue our two-way community engagement to gain buy-in, obtain guidance and craft an operating structure with existing nonprofits, which currently serve 1,900 minors in south Longview. We’ll also identify areas where services are not currently offered within the community (e.g., health care, workforce development) to identify additional partners.
The Eastman Foundation’s existing charitable contribution agreements will serve as the foundation of our community agreements.
Eastman’s planned project in Longview is aligned with the DOE’s goal of demonstrating what is possible and catalyzing industry-wide change to a low-carbon future. Some key differentiators were the: 1) magnitude of decarbonization and the level of technology maturity, 2) strength of our commercial strategy and agreements, and 3) community engagement and benefit plans.
Eastman obtained significant state and local tax incentives, supporting the project and totaling about $70 million.