Hillsborough County · For Every Resident

Your county.
Your materials. Paid back.

Advanced Circular Manufacturing turns what you put out into manufactured products — and returns the value to Hillsborough County for 30 years.

One bin. Everything in. Nothing sorted at home.
Community Benefits · For every resident · DOC 05 OF 06

What this page is

The plain-language version of the engagement for Hillsborough County residents. No jargon, no commercial detail — what changes for your household and your community.

Three things to know
  1. One bin. Everything in. No sorting at home — the factory handles material separation, including electronics, batteries, and household items.
  2. Royalties back to the County: roughly $1.20 returned in Year 2 for every $1 spent on the manufacturing fee — growing to roughly $2.95 per $1 of the Year-1 fee by Year 30. The royalty continues for the full 30-year contract.
  3. The Southeast County Landfill stops receiving new material; your materials become manufactured products; ~155 new manufacturing jobs come to the Tampa Bay region.
1
bin. Everything goes in together.
0
sorting, separating, or rinsing required
155
new skilled manufacturing jobs at full scale
30
years of royalty back to the county (all three options)
~$900M
estimated royalties paid back over 30 years (full scale)
Near‑zero
landfill disposal at full build‑out

What Changes for You

Twelve ways Advanced Circular Manufacturing improves daily life for every resident of Hillsborough County.

🗑️
One bin. Everything in.
Everything you put out — food, plastics, metals, fabrics, electronics, glass — goes in one bin. No sorting at home. No separate bins. No rinsing. You put it out. The manufacturing system handles the rest.
Sorting happens at the factory
⏰
15–30 minutes back every week
No more time spent separating materials into different bins, figuring out what's accepted this week, or driving to a community collection centre. That time comes back to you — every week, for 30 years.
~15–30 min/household/week saved
💰
Lower costs over time
Hillsborough County currently spends over $110 per ton on disposal — money that returns nothing. Under this programme, those same fees come back as a Circular Royalty™ starting in 2029. As the royalty grows, the county's disposal budget shrinks — and those savings flow back into services you use.
120%+ return on every dollar spent
🏘️
No impact on your neighbourhood
The manufacturing facility is fully enclosed with airlocked intake systems. There are no open piles, no visible stockpiles, and no exposed material on site. The facility is designed to be a good neighbour — it looks and operates like an industrial manufacturing plant, not a disposal facility.
Fully enclosed · Industrial standard
💨
No more landfill odour
The Southeast County Landfill near Lithia — and the overflow from the county's collection system — are the current source of disposal odour in south Hillsborough. When the landfill stops receiving new material, the odour source stops. The manufacturing facility is designed to have near-zero atmospheric discharge.
Designed for near-zero emissions
💧
Clean water recovered
The manufacturing process designed for this programme recovers ultrapure water as an output. At full capacity, the facility is designed to produce the equivalent of enough water for about 2,100 households every day — recovered from the same materials you put out at the kerb.
~210,000 gallons/day designed capacity
⚡
Energy from your materials
The facility is designed to operate in near-zero-discharge, near-zero-emissions mode — generating its own energy from the conversion process, with near-zero external grid draw. The energy your materials contain stays local.
Designed for grid-independent operation
🚛
Sealed collection vehicles
Because everything goes in one sealed bin, collection vehicles can be fully enclosed — no open-top trucks on residential roads. Less noise, less dust, less spillage on collection day. The same collection frequency, with better containment.
Enclosed vehicles · Less disruption
👷
Real manufacturing jobs, here
This programme creates approximately 155 skilled manufacturing positions at the facility, plus about 465 more jobs across the regional economy. These are engineering, operations, and maintenance roles — not logistics roles. They stay in the Tampa Bay region for the full 30-year life of the programme.
~155 direct · ~465 regional jobs
♻️
Nothing is wasted
Advanced Circular Manufacturing converts ~100% of everything collected into manufactured products — synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, and recovered minerals. About 90% is sold globally as manufactured materials; the rest is hydrogen used to power the facility itself, which returns as net-positive ultrapure water that is also sold or donated. Nothing is burned for energy — near-zero residual, no combustion.
~90% sold globally · 100% converted
🌿
Climate contribution
At full scale, the programme is designed to avoid an estimated 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent every year — the same as taking about 174,000 cars off the road permanently. The landfill currently generates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO₂. Closing it matters.
~174,000 cars removed equiv./year
🧪
"Forever chemicals" destroyed
PFAS — the class of industrial chemicals that build up in soil, water, and bodies — are found in many everyday products. Conventional disposal cannot destroy them. The Advanced Circular Manufacturing process operates at temperatures designed to permanently break down PFAS compounds. Your community's water and soil stay safer.
PFAS permanently destroyed

Today vs. With ACM

How your daily experience with materials collection and disposal changes.

Today
✗Multiple bins — you decide what goes where
✗15–30 minutes per week sorting at home
✗Disposal fees return $0 to the community
✗Landfill continues filling — limited capacity left
✗Materials burned or buried — resources lost
✗PFAS accumulates in soil and water
✗Open-top trucks on residential roads
✗Landfill odour — current and growing
✗800,000+ tonnes CO₂e per year to atmosphere
✗No local manufacturing jobs in this sector
→
With ACM
✓One bin — everything in, nothing to sort
✓15–30 minutes per week returned to you
✓Manufacturing fee returns 120%+ as county royalty
✓Landfill replaced — materials go to the factory
✓~100% converted; ~90% sold globally as manufactured products
✓PFAS permanently destroyed in the process
✓Fully sealed, enclosed collection vehicles
✓Landfill closes — odour source eliminated
✓~800,000 tonnes CO₂e avoided every year
✓155 direct + 465 indirect manufacturing jobs

What This Means for Your Household

Three practical changes that reach every home in Hillsborough County.

15–30 min
Per week returned to your household. No more sorting, separating, or wondering which bin to use.
$900M+
Estimated royalties back to the county over 30 years. That money goes into the local budget — not into a landfill.
174,000
Car-equivalents removed from the road every year at full scale. This is your household's contribution to the region's climate goal.

Designed for the Environment

At full capacity, the Advanced Circular Manufacturing programme is designed to deliver these outcomes for the Tampa Bay region.

~800,000
tonnes of CO₂ equivalent avoided per year — the same as taking 174,000 cars off the road
~210,000 gal
of ultrapure water recovered every day — enough for about 2,100 households
Near-zero
landfill disposal. Materials become products, not buried cost.

How the Circular Royalty™ Works

In plain terms — where the money comes from, and how it gets back to Hillsborough County.

Step 1
Your materials collected from the kerb
→
Step 2
Converted into products at the factory
→
Step 3
Products sold to industry worldwide
→
Step 4
Royalty paid back to Hillsborough County

This is not a discount. It is not a rebate. It is a contractual royalty derived from the value of what your materials become. Under the CSA, the county pays a Beneficiation Fee to Carbotura under the manufacturing arrangement. Carbotura pays a Circular Royalty™ back to the county — an independent payment from product revenues — starting 13 months after the factory opens, and continuing every month for 30 years.

The materials you put out — things that used to cost money to get rid of — become synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, and recovered minerals. Those products have real industrial value. A portion of that value comes back to Hillsborough County as the Circular Royalty™.

The Beneficiation Fee the county pays and the Circular Royalty™ the county receives are two separate transactions — they are never offset against each other or shown as a single net number. The county's books record both: what it pays in Beneficiation Fees, and what it receives in royalty. This is the Separate Transaction Principle, and it is what makes the royalty a genuine new revenue stream rather than a hidden discount.

Under the CSA — for every $1 Hillsborough County pays in Beneficiation Fee —
Carbotura is designed to return at least $1.20 in Circular Royalty™ (independent payment from product revenues).
That return grows every year for 30 years. Money that previously disappeared into disposal now comes back — and then some.
This is a designed contractual return based on planning-basis estimates. Actual amounts depend on confirmed volumes and programme performance.
Bonus feature · landfill remediation

The Exogenesis™ Royalty — a second payment, when the landfill is cleaned up

Beyond the Circular Royalty™ on new materials, the agreement also includes an Exogenesis™ Royalty bonus — a separate payment of $50 per ton for material extracted from the Southeast County Landfill during remediation. Hillsborough Heights, a separate post-closure care site, is also a candidate.

In plain terms: when Carbotura begins mining and processing the legacy landfill — turning buried material into manufactured products — the county receives a second royalty stream for that work, on top of the Circular Royalty™ on day-to-day collection. Land that was previously a closed-off landfill is restored. The buried material becomes industrial product. And the county is paid for both.

Available under the CSA · subject to Waste Characterization Study confirmation

Where Everything Happens

Here's where your materials go today, what closes, and where the factory would be built.

Location map requires a Google Maps API key.
The locations panel (right) shows all four sites.

Where the factory would go
Dade City — about 28 miles northeast of Tampa. A 355-acre industrial site with rail access already in place. This is where your materials would be converted into products.
The landfill being replaced
Southeast County Landfill, near Lithia — about 25 miles southeast of Tampa. This is where overflow materials go today. It's running out of space. The factory replaces it.
Where materials come from today
The Hillsborough County Resource Recovery Facility on Falkenburg Road, Tampa — where your materials are currently burned to generate electricity. The ash from that process also goes to the factory.
Tampa homes and businesses
Most Hillsborough County residents. Your collection service stays the same — one bin, same schedule. The destination for what you put out changes entirely.
Factory site
Landfill
Current facility
Homes & businesses

Your Questions, Answered

The five things Hillsborough County residents ask most.

Do I really just put everything in one bin? +

Yes. One bin. Everything you produce at home — food, plastic packaging, glass, metal, fabric, electronics, garden material, paper — goes in together. You do not sort anything. You do not rinse anything.

The sorting happens inside the manufacturing facility, not in your home. Automated systems separate materials by type at industrial speed and precision — far more accurately than manual household sorting. The simpler your job, the better the system works.

One bin. All materials. No exceptions. The factory handles the rest.
Will my neighbourhood smell different? +

South Hillsborough residents already know the smell from the Southeast County Landfill near Lithia. That smell comes from decomposing material exposed to air and weather. When the landfill stops receiving new material — which this programme brings closer — that source goes away.

The manufacturing facility is fully enclosed. Materials enter through airlocked intake systems and never sit exposed to open air. The process operates in a sealed, oxygen-free chamber — no burning, no open pits, no exposed piles. The facility is designed to have near-zero atmospheric discharge — meaning it is designed to have almost no smell or discharge into the surrounding environment.

The current smell source closes. The factory is designed for near-zero discharge.
How does this reduce what I pay? +

Today, the county pays over $110 per ton to dispose of materials — and gets nothing back. That cost appears on your property tax assessment every November as the Solid Waste Disposal Assessment.

Under this programme, the same spending generates a Circular Royalty™ starting in 2029 — and that royalty grows every year. As the royalty income builds up in the county's budget, the pressure on disposal assessments reduces. Additionally, the cost of contaminated loads, sorting confusion, and re-processing disappears — because everything goes in one bin from the start, with no sorting errors.

Disposal spending that returned $0 now returns at least $1.20 per $1 paid in Year 2 — reaching roughly $2.95 per $1 of the Year-1 fee by Year 30. Compounded across the 30-year contract, this is the largest sustained royalty stream the County could receive from a private partner.
What about electronics, batteries, and specialist items? +

All of it goes in the bin. Electronics, batteries, old phones, small appliances, cables, aerosol cans, paint tins — the process is designed to accept all material types, including things that current systems struggle with.

You no longer need to hold items at home waiting for a special collection event, drive to a household hazardous waste drop-off, or figure out which Saturday to take your electronics to the community centre. Standard collection accepts everything. No separate trips. No special bags.

Everything accepted. Standard collection. No special trips required.
Is this just incineration with a different name? +

No. This is the most important distinction to understand.

Incineration burns materials with oxygen and high heat. Materials are destroyed. The output is ash, carbon dioxide, and exhaust gases. Hillsborough County already has an incineration facility — the Reworld™ Resource Recovery Facility on Falkenburg Road. It generates electricity from the burning process. When everything burns, the material is gone.

Advanced Circular Manufacturing does not burn. There is no oxygen in the chamber. There is no flame. Instead, microwave-based energy breaks materials apart at the elemental level — a process that breaks materials apart without burning them, in an oxygen-free chamber. The result is that the carbon in your materials becomes synthetic graphite and graphene compounds. The water is purified. The metals are separated intact. The conversion process generates the energy the facility needs to run itself.

Incineration destroys resources. Advanced Circular Manufacturing manufactures products. That is why the royalty exists — because the factory creates things of value from what you put out, rather than converting it to ash and heat.

No oxygen. No flame. No burning. Your materials become manufactured products, not ash.
Why does Carbotura's classification matter to Hillsborough County? +

Carbotura builds factories, not waste facilities. That distinction isn't just language — it determines which permits apply, which investors can participate, and whether the 30-year royalty structure is financially viable.

Carbotura is filing a federal petition with the EPA confirming its process is manufacturing, not waste treatment. If a local or state authority were to classify the facility as a waste operation — even informally — Carbotura would not be able to proceed. The investment model requires manufacturing status. This is one reason Carbotura works closely with communities before committing capital: to confirm the regulatory path is clear.

The factory is a manufacturing facility. That classification is the foundation of everything — the permits, the investment, and the royalty.
Was this Community Benefits page useful?
Environmental and performance figures are designed targets at commercial scale — they are not guaranteed operational outcomes. Financial projections are modelled estimates. All projections are subject to site-specific conditions.