$18M North Las Vegas project aims to turn trash into fuel

One person’s trash is another person’s treasure — and a climate-tech startup heading to North Las Vegas is betting that trash can become a valuable replacement for coal.

Forge Industries expects to begin developing its first U.S. biofuel facility this year in North Las Vegas, where it plans to convert hard-to-recycle waste into an engineered fuel designed to replace coal in industries including cement, steel and power generation.

The $18 million project is expected to produce nearly 500,000 metric tons of fuel annually once fully operational. The 105,000-square-foot facility is projected to begin operating by the end of 2027.

“We’re targeting a replacement for coal,” Forge founder and CEO Chelsea Boyle said. “We produce a fuel that outperforms coal and can replace it one for one.”

The company says its fuel can cost more than 50 percent less than coal while producing up to 80 percent fewer emissions.

Forge takes plastics, rubber, textiles, food waste, waste oils, paper and cardboard that otherwise could wind up in landfills and processes them into a fuel designed to mimic coal.

Each production line has the capacity to convert about 300,000 tons of waste into fuel annually.

“We solve two problems simultaneously — reducing landfill waste and reducing the reliance on coal for industries — and we do that through making an engineered alternative fuel,” Boyle said. “It’s cleaner, it’s more abundant, it is designed to dethrone coal and it is made from waste.”

100 kilos in a Nike bag

Boyle, 34, a New York native who graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, was inspired to create the company while working on her undergraduate thesis in Senegal.

“I was at the West African Research Center in Dakar, and it was the first time in my life that I confronted the waste crisis head-on,” said Boyle, who speaks four languages. “That portion of Africa is super inundated with the rest of the world’s waste.

“It was all inherited waste from the Western world or developed countries, and I just felt with all the money in the world, is this really the best we can do? I left that experience feeling like I could not look away from that question and that issue, and it bothered me for a long time into my career.”

She started Forge in 2022, when the company began producing 100-kilogram batches of industrial fuel. By 2025, it had successfully completed industrial-scale pilots of more than 100 tons.

“We’ve had our fuels validated over the past four years across seven independent testing labs. You generally need to showcase its successful performance again and again and again,” Boyle said. “We started with 100 kilograms in a Nike bag that we were trying to prove was a viable prototype, and it took us two years to validate that. But from there we’ve scaled about 18 times as fast and as voluminous. We’ve never failed a spec test.

“This is going to be the model we use for our first flagship facility in Vegas, and that facility will produce just under half a million metric tons of fuel once we’re up and running.”

Forging partnerships

Forge is moving toward construction after Next Phase Capital co-led a $3.85 million investment in the company.

The project itself is expected to cost a little more than $18 million, Boyle said, with funding going toward equipment, hiring and development of the North Las Vegas site.

“It’s our first commercial facility, which is a huge deal for us. It’s the physical manifestation of so much for us. It’s a really important milestone.”

Shelly Sun Berkowitz, founder and managing partner of Next Phase Capital, scaled BrightStar Care from one Chicago location to hundreds nationwide before selling the in-home care company last year for $750 million. She said Boyle was one of the main reasons she invested seven figures in Forge.

“I probably talk to 25 to 40 founders per year and make investments in about five to 10 of them. Chelsea really stood out to me,” she said. “I do look for founders that have that drive and that clear vision. They can articulate it, but they’re also coachable. Chelsea checks all of those boxes, and the business model is strong.

Sun Berkowitz said Forge already had demonstrated commercial demand for a more sustainable fuel that can burn at higher temperatures without requiring customers to make expensive changes to existing infrastructure.

“I loved that we could address something that would be impactful for our planet and climate, regardless of politics,” she said. “It’s economically more sound, but at the same time it is better for the environment.”

Boyle emphasized that Forge is not simply burning trash.

The company processes waste into a standardized fuel that is then combusted at industrial facilities.

“If you light a plastic bottle in your driveway, it’s going to be nasty,” Boyle said. “When you combust our fuel in these types of industrial facilities, there is almost nothing left. It is such a high heat, so it’s a really good place for alternative fuel.”

For Forge, the business case is as important as the environmental one.

“Fuel is only ever replaced if it’s cheaper and better,” Boyle said. “You have to be cheaper, you have to be better, and that’s what we’ve been able to achieve.”

Economic impact

Forge was one of nine companies to receive tax abatements in May from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development. It was approved for $1.6 million in abatements and is expected to make $13.9 million in capital equipment investment in the first two years of operation. The company is projected to generate $5.4 million in new taxes over the 10-year abatement period and make a total economic impact of $194.7 million.

“Forge is more than just one company coming to North Las Vegas. It’s a small piece of a much bigger story about Nevada becoming a place where innovative companies can come, build, create jobs and solve real-world problems,” said Karsten Heise, the GOED senior director of strategic programs and innovation. “It’s not just about bringing another company to the state but about bringing a new capability.

“Forge represents a strong opportunity to build another piece of Nevada’s emerging clean-technology and circular-economy ecosystem and innovative manufacturing that creates good-paying jobs while addressing a real resource and environmental challenge.”

The company anticipates having 16 full-time employees, at an average wage of $47.50, within the first two years of operation and 24 within the first five years of operation.

Boyle had high praise for the partnership with GOED and the city of North Las Vegas.

“There are very few states that do it as well as Nevada does,” she said. “The partnership they have on the economic development side and the commitment they have to making sure that companies that come have to have a massive public benefit.

“We spent two years deciding what would be our flagship because it is a replica for a huge network. We’ve looked at all the states that we wanted, and no one looked as polished and as collaborative as Las Vegas and Nevada. I cannot say that enough. They’ve been wonderful.”

It’s fitting that Forge will open its flagship facility in Nevada, which has the highest national per-person waste disposal rate at 8 pounds per day.

Take out the trash

Boyle said the company will be generating revenue and profitable in its first year of operation in North Las Vegas.

“That section of the U.S. is a huge hub for cement, lime and building materials, everything you need for infrastructure,” she said. “We’re just about 90 percent of our capacity committed.”

Once Forge’s flagship facility proves successful, Boyle said it can be replicated around the world. Her ultimate goal is to rid the entire planet of trash.

“The waste has to go somewhere. You can’t just keep piling it up. It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s insane,” she said. “And human behavior is already pretty locked. It’s not enough for us to start using bamboo straws. Waste is pretty inevitable. We can change and adapt over time, but there’s so much energy in what’s thrown away.

“So we hope to find a way to get rid of it all. I hope that at some point in time we’re so good at using what is so not wanted by society anymore that we just run out of trash.”