In a warehouse on the east side of the sleepy bedroom community of Rohnert Park, plastic bags lay piled in SUV-sized heaps. A towering contraption of pipes, computers and stainless steel vessels stood nearby, quiet and idle.
Founders of Resynergi, a plastics recycling startup, say they’ve developed a proprietary method for breaking the strong polymer chains that make plastic so hard to recycle. That includes plastic bags and containers that have proved tricky to reprocess and often end up in landfills. But some neighbors are alarmed that an industrial plant could operate, potentially by the end of the year, within the same multi-use development as apartments and a school — albeit at a relatively small scale.
“My neighbors are going crazy — they’re protesting at the farmers market,” said Alex Finnegan, a math and science teacher who lives nearby, during a recent public tour of the facility. “I want to ask directly: Will this poison our water, air or soil?”…