Boca Raton, Fla.-based Mountain Valley Recycling (MVR) said today it dedicated a new 90 million pound per year recycled plastic resin manufacturing facility in Frankfort, Ky. The company manufactures high performance sustainable plastic resins.

MVR’s $9.2 million investment in the equipment and the 220,000-square-foot facility, previously home to an auto parts manufacturer, is expected to help boost the local economy and job market with 360 new hires. The company is backed by two private equity firms HG Global Equity and Boca Raton-based Laser Partners.

MVR specializes in re-engineered sustainable resins that can be customized for use in a variety of applications, including for consumer product manufacturers that are “trying to get ahead of the green curve,” MVR CEO Ron Whaley told the Cleantech Group today. The Cleantech Group offers research analysis and insight in the areas of waste and recycling. MVR says the carbon footprint of its resin is 70 percent less than that of a virgin resin.

Whaley said this is the first model facility for the 7-year-old company in the U.S., though it had a smaller facility in Tennessee focused on traditional recycling. The company is looking to bring “a cookie cutter approach” with the Kentucky facility to other U.S. locations.

MVR has a proprietary process for sorting and cleaning, gathered from around the world that it is trying to apply in the U.S. in a new way. Rather than being a traditional recycler, MVR is focused on created creating sustainable resins.

Whaley said the market for plastic recycling, depending on the resin, is in its infancy, and offers economical and environmental benefits. In North America, the total virgin resin market is more than 100 billion pounds. Less than one billion pounds is recycled, offering a huge untapped opportunity that could keep millions of cubic feet of waste from being buried.

MVR has also received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance for the use of recycled polypropylene and polystyrene to manufacture food contact products.