The Rohnert Park and Cotati communities’ requests to extend the public comment period on Resynergi’s proposal has been accepted. Resynergi proposed to build a recycling plant at SOMO village, concerning the community about potential risks. With the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s public comment period extended to October 3rd, what are the next steps, and what concerns still remain?
Stephanie Lennox has devoted her life to environmental justice and has picked up thousands of pounds of trash over the past decades. The first time she heard about Resynergi’s proposal to use a microwave-based process to convert plastic into fuel was when the Bay Area Air Quality Management District released the required engineering evaluation and public comment period on July 18th. Ms. Lennox has two daughters at Credo and is personally concerned about the novel recycling process being first implemented right next to the school her daughters attend. She is very clear that she is “not opposed to new technology coming on board to try to help us with our plastic waste crisis that we have here on planet earth.” She is, however, against, “having children be right next to what’s claiming to be a solution.” A continued concern within the Rohnert Park and Cotati community is that the recycling facility is the first of its kind. This makes it hard to have concrete data about the risks of the new technology. Ms. Lennox emphasizes the importance of recognizing the novelty in the proposed innovations.
The novelty of the process that Resynergi is proposing to use brings concerns about unknown risks. Ms. Lennox is among many who are concerned about the emissions that historically come from pyrolysis and incinerating plastic. She says specifically, “you take five tons of plastic a day, you melt it, 70 percent of that, you get into oil. 30 percent of it is non-condensable gasses. It is a toxic waste of that product, of making it back into oil. That 30 percent of five tons of plastic a day is what will be added into the air. So that’s approximately 8,000 pounds of non-condensable gasses that will be burned off on site every week.” Ideally these emissions won’t be a problem, but many feel the first time this technology is tested should not be next to a school. Especially when there is no history of data telling us that there will be no long-term effects…