Houston-based Encina is planning a $1.1 billion chemical recycling plant for plastic waste on these bottomlands along the Susquehanna River in Point Township, Pennsylvania. Credit: James Bruggers
A Philadelphia environmental group has filed an appeal to block a proposed $1.1 billion “advanced” plastics recycling plant in rural Pennsylvania after the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, exempted the facility from having to obtain a solid waste permit.
The Clean Air Council believes its challenge may be the first after a 2020 law passed by Pennsylvania’s Republican legislature that classified “advanced recycling” as a manufacturing process, as opposed to waste management or waste incineration.
The state’s Department of Environmental Protection used the 2020 law this past summer to determine that the proposal from a Houston-based company, Encina, did not need a waste permit to gather huge volumes of plastic waste and, through a heating and chemical process, turn it into benzene, toluene and xylene. The fuels are used as solvents and feedstocks for the chemical industry, and, according to Encina’s plans, plastic production.
Pennsylvania is among 20 states that have adopted such laws, which seek to boost what the chemical and plastics industries call “advanced,” or “chemical” recycling.
Advanced recycling is a big part of what the chemical industry claims is an answer to a global plastics problem that the United Nations has described as a “triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution.” But many environmental advocates view advanced recycling of plastics as little more than another form of pollution-causing incineration and a way to perpetuate fossil fuels and single-use plastic packaging.
The appeal is also the first formal challenge to the Encina project in Point Township along the Susquehanna River in north-central Pennsylvania. Alex Bomstein, the Clean Air Council’s legal director, said the company’s plans are of such a significant scale that they deserve close scrutiny.
“They are proposing what they are projecting to be a billion-dollar facility,” Bomstein said. “No matter how you slice it, that is a big facility. It’s hard to imagine that much (plastic) processing not having a large environmental impact.”
DEP spokesman Jamar Thrasher said the environmental group’s appeal was under review by DEP staff and would go before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, which conducts trial-like proceedings to resolve conflicts over state-issued permits. Inside Climate News - link - James Bruggers - link - more like this (Pennsylvania) - link - more like this (plastics) - link
The state’s Department of Environmental Protection used the 2020 law this past summer to determine that the proposal from a Houston-based company, Encina, did not need a waste permit to gather huge volumes of plastic waste and, through a heating and chemical process, turn it into benzene, toluene and xylene. The fuels are used as solvents and feedstocks for the chemical industry, and, according to Encina’s plans, plastic production.
Pennsylvania is among 20 states that have adopted such laws, which seek to boost what the chemical and plastics industries call “advanced,” or “chemical” recycling.
Advanced recycling is a big part of what the chemical industry claims is an answer to a global plastics problem that the United Nations has described as a “triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution.” But many environmental advocates view advanced recycling of plastics as little more than another form of pollution-causing incineration and a way to perpetuate fossil fuels and single-use plastic packaging.
The appeal is also the first formal challenge to the Encina project in Point Township along the Susquehanna River in north-central Pennsylvania. Alex Bomstein, the Clean Air Council’s legal director, said the company’s plans are of such a significant scale that they deserve close scrutiny.
“They are proposing what they are projecting to be a billion-dollar facility,” Bomstein said. “No matter how you slice it, that is a big facility. It’s hard to imagine that much (plastic) processing not having a large environmental impact.”
DEP spokesman Jamar Thrasher said the environmental group’s appeal was under review by DEP staff and would go before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, which conducts trial-like proceedings to resolve conflicts over state-issued permits. Inside Climate News - link - James Bruggers - link - more like this (Pennsylvania) - link - more like this (plastics) - link
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