A group of Erie-area environmentalists would love to live in a world with a lot less plastic.
Although their instincts tell them that recycling plastic is a good move — one that should reduce the amount of plastic going to landfills — they are raising concerns about a plan by International Recycling Group to build what’s billed as the nation’s largest plastics recycling plant in Erie.
IRG, founded by former steel company executive Mitch Hecht, announced in April that it had purchased 25 acres of the former Hammermill Paper site to build a $185 million recycling plant that’s expected to employ 300 people.
The company has received broad support locally from the business community, including a combined investment of $9 million from Erie Insurance and the Plastek Group.
Members of three environmental groups with ties to Erie recently spoke with reporters from the Erie Times-News to discuss their concerns about both the safety of the process and the viability of the business plan.
Representatives of those three groups — Juan Llarena of Our Water, Our Air, Our Rights; Jenny Tompkins from PennFuture; and Benedictine Sister Anne McCarthy — expressed one common sentiment:
“We would love for this to work. We want this to work,” Llarena said.
The bottom line, though, is that they’re not sure the plant would have the minimal effect on the environment that IRG claims.
Plans announced$100 million recycling plant planned for Erie
What’s more, they say they’re not certain if IRG’s business plan is sound. They say that raises concerns about what would happen if the plant was built but the business failed.
Among other concerns, the environmental groups say they worry that massive stockpiles of plastic could also lead to dangerous fires. All it would take, the group of environmentalists said, is an overheated battery in a plastic toy.
“The lithium-ion in a discarded e-cigarette pen is enough to start a fire,” McCarthy said. “How would a fire department even deal with a fire that hot?”
Recycling newsErie recycling company spares 1.3 million bottles from the landfill
Tompkins said she’s not saying fire is inevitable.
“It’s not to make the case that we assume a fire will happen. It’s how we deal with a fire if it does happen,” she said.
The location of the proposed plant raises the stakes, Llarena said.
“It’s in an environmental justice area,” he said, describing what Pennsylvania defines as a low-income area with a higher number of minority residents. “It’s a neighborhood with the Boys Club, schools, single-family homes, apartments. Burning plastic is toxic. Who would want to be around that?”
Tompkins, who is Penn Future’s campaign manager for clean water advocacy, said she’s not prepared yet to say there is a safe location to build what IRG proposes.
“I don’t think we can determine if this is feasible anywhere. I don’t think we can say yes to put it somewhere,” she said.
Some of her questions revolve around the water that will be needed for the cleaning process.
Questions asked and answered
Here’s a look at some of the top concerns raised by these environmental groups with Hecht, from IRG offering responses:
With so much plastic and the potential for lithium batteries in the mix, isn’t there a great risk of fire? If not, why not, and can it be contained?
Hecht: Every bale of plastic will be contained indoors and there will be “heat-seeking sensors” that are “continuously looking for heat generation within the bale.” If it does, the machinery would activate an irrigation system, Hecht said.
“There’s a fire risk involved in any manufacturing process, and so there are sophisticated fire prevention systems that will be in the plant,” he said. “It’s not a fire risk related to some sort of chemical combustion. This is fire related to inert matter that is not combustible beyond any other type of stable matter. OK. There are no chemicals, there are no gases that add any additional risk then you would find otherwise in a stable, non-volatile manufacturing environment.”
Viable business model?
They raise issues about the viability of those plans. Perhaps most importantly, the small amount of unbaled plastic that can be carried in a pickup truck to take to a center is only 200 to 300 pounds. How can that work financially?
Hecht: The plan has changed. No longer will individuals volunteer or work to retrieve plastics set out at the curbside and turn them into a collection site in exchange for a per-pound payment.
“Initially we thought we would have a model where we were rewarding the collectors with digital currency and then we realized that really wasn’t workable,” he said. “For the time being our model is that we are paying employees of newBin to collect the plastic probably in the first year or so. We will likely be starting with neighborhood collection points around the city and slowly evolving into a door-to-door collection system.”
Hecht said that part of the business model will likely entail a concept known as “extended producer responsibility.” In this case, companies that produce plastic products, like pop bottles, would make a financial investment in recovering the products that can otherwise end up in a landfill or pollute the environment. Such a company could donate to newBin, the company IRG is partnering with to develop a user application, in exchange for ad placement on the app.
“The beauty of newBin is that we’re incorporating the future of what’s transforming recycling over the next five to 10 years, and that’s something called extended producer responsibility,” Hecht said. “For the first time, consumer product groups and retailers who use plastic are going to be asked to have monetary responsibility for supporting the collection and recycling infrastructure, which means that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and retail chains like Giant Eagle are going to be asked to pay money to help support the recycling system.”
Canada and many European companies already require such companies to make these investments and, Hecht believes, the U.S. is “trending” toward a similar obligation.
“That’s why the economics are different today than just paying people to collect with the only revenues being the sale of recyclable materials,” he said. “We anticipate that in the future our business will be supported by those consumer products companies and retail outlets that are looking to play their part as a proxy for extended producer responsibility.”
Concerns about pollution
Can you address concerns about plastic dust associated with the flaking process?
Hecht: “There is normal ambient dust that is captured in a baghouse system at the top of the roof of the building, and everything will comply with a best-in-class filtration system so that no dust will be leaking out of the building,” he said.
If IRG makes resin pellets, how much water is needed in the washing process and what becomes of that water? Is there a solid waste produced? What happens to it?
Hecht: “There will be a closed-loop water filtration system, and part of that water uses the local wastewater treatment capacity that the city currently has,” he said. “But most of that water is designed in a closed-loop system. Once the water passes through the filtration system and cleans it, it goes back into the operations. There’s no chance that there’s any effluent or any leakage of that wastewater into aquifers or any other area. It’s as if it’s any other manufacturing facility that uses water treatment. It’s the same process.”
Are IRG’s plans subject to public comment and review by the state Department of Environmental Protection?
Hecht: “Absolutely. We are working with DEP for normal permitting for operating a plant like ours. You have air emissions permits and you have water permits. Those are the two primary permits that you need to operate. Both the air and the water will need to comport with the highest standards from the Department of Environmental Protection of Pennsylvania.
“The staff are completely on top of everything that’s going to take place in our building. These are objective standards on air emissions, particulate matter and matter in any wastewater. We are not asking for any variance at all in relation to the highest standards that the DEP may require.”
Is IRG required to post bond? What happens to the site if the business fails?
“This is not municipal solid waste. The material coming into our plant is presorted, compacted 1,000-pound bales of post-use plastic. This is a feedstock for a material that gets turned back into a product that we manufacture. So there is no additional risk of contamination that is related to our operations. So there’s no more necessity for a bond for our facility than there is for a manufacturing plant that’s making widgets. I cannot imagine the city being on the hook for anything left in that building.
“The materials that we purchase and that will enter our building are profitable commodities that are an inventory,” he added. “Right now we are purchasing that material. And if for some reason we can’t use that material, that inventory will be sold resold as a commodity to another recycler who would gladly want to purchase it.”
More:Pennsylvania must act to stem pollution flowing to Chesapeake Bay
Will there be a long-term market for Clean Red, which will be sold to a steelmaker as a replacement for coke in the steelmaking process, especially if hydrogen is developed as a replacement for coke?
Hecht: “Less than 10% of the material that comes through our plant will be turned into Clean Red. It is simply a way to handle residual waste plastic that has no other utility.”
Plastic products like potato chip bags, Styrofoam cups and egg cartons cannot be recycled, Hecht said. IRG will turn those materials into Clean Red, which can then be used as a substitute for coke in the steelmaking process, instead of taking that waste to a landfill.
IRG won’t make money on Clean Red, Hecht said, but it won’t cost the company money to landfill. Hecht believes a recycling application for those products will eventually be developed.
“If there is anybody that has a recycling application for any material that comes through our plant it will be sold to them,” he said. “Clean Red is made as a very last resort before we send the material to a landfill. Will there be a future for Clean Red long-term? We hope not.”
How much stuff will need to be taken to a landfill? Will that be cost-prohibitive?
Hecht: “There’s going to be some landfilling because there will always be some modest amount of organic material and so forth,” he said. “There’s dirt, there’s sand and things like that.”
Of all of the material entering the plant, about 5% is estimated to be waste that will end up in a landfill. Hecht said those costs are built into the company’s financial model and will not be cost-prohibitive.
Questions about the location
Does it make sense to locate this in an environmental justice area?
Hecht: “Absolutely. We’re creating 300 high-paying jobs in a clean technology industry, in a clean manufacturing environment for which there is no threat of degradation to the area, the neighborhood, and it’s providing jobs, it’s economic development. There is no reason why there should not be this sort of development on the east side.
“IRG signed a partnership agreement with the UECDC (Urban Erie Community Development Corporation) to work closely with the UECDC on a community benefits agreement, where we commit to high-paying jobs and we commit to unbiased hiring practices, hiring people from the city and from the 2nd District and the people that require employment the most.”
More:Silent Walk for Peace set for playground
As environmentalists, Tompkins, McCarthy, and Llarena prefer the idea of recycling plastic instead of landfilling it. But plastics recycling — they note — is different than recycling aluminum or other metals.
Plastic bottles, for instance, can’t be made into plastic bottles.
“It’s really downcycling, ” Llarena said. “It breaks down to the point that you can never use it for the same thing.”
McCarthy worries, though, that what looks like a solution might slow the process of weaning ourselves off plastic.
“There is microplastic that is in the water, in the air, and in the land, and now in our food,” she said.
It would be worrisome, she said, “if people think it’s OK to use plastic because we can recycle it. It’s not really accurate and it’s not really safe for the health of the community.”
Hecht, on the other hand, questions why environmentalists have not taken their concerns to him directly.
“It’s just odd that nobody has contacted the company and nobody seems to be too concerned to come to the company directly,” Hecht said. “We’ve always been open about everything we’re doing.”
Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNMartin.
Contact Matthew Rink at mrink@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ETNrink.