Industrial disasters raise questions about Erie plastics recycling plans
Remember the East Palestine train derailment in Ohio on Feb. 3? The chemicals it spewed are used to make plastic resin and are hazardous to life. Officials burned off the massive spill, releasing a giant, black plume of toxic smoke into the air for days and dispersing chemicals that could not only impact the residents of East Palestine, but those downstream and downwind. On April 12, a truck carrying 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil from the site to dispose it somewhere else in our country overturned on a highway in Youngstown, Ohio. Where were they going? And at what risk to those communities?
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Remember the equipment malfunction at the ethane cracker plant in Monaca on Feb. 13? That's the one in Beaver County where a large flame burned off toxic chemicals into the air for an entire day — to prevent an explosion. You may be confusing it with the March 15 event, where two loud booms occurred at the same plant, followed by an orange glow in the night sky as more chemicals burned off into the air. At the time of this writing, the plant has had dozens of "malfunction" reports since 2022. This plant makes plastic out of natural gas. Many in Pennsylvania touted this propped-up plant — Shell received $1.65 billion in tax credits from the state to build it — as an economic win. A win for whom?
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Remember the plastics recycling facility in Richmond, Indiana, that caught fire on April 12? It spewed a massive black plume of smoke into the air for days. The plant housed 14 acres of plastic piles. Residents had to evacuate because of the toxic smoke. Why was so much plastic hoarded into six buildings and piled floor to ceiling? A backlog because the plastics recycling business is booming? No, because this plastics "recycling" facility doesn't do much actual recycling. Not many do. Only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled. Most of it is waste.
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Plastic is made from fossil fuels — a highly flammable resource, most have noticed, the world is trying to phase out because of byproducts like pollution, war and a variety of serious health risks. As plastics burn, they release dioxins, which are linked to cancer, lung and heart conditions, reproductive and developmental problems in humans. Have you ever lit a piece of plastic on fire and inhaled it? No, you haven't, because that would be an insane risk to your health.
There have been 70 plastics recycling plant fires recorded since 2019. Toxic fires. Plants of these kinds are dangerous for their workers, firefighters, and communities. Plastics and related industries are often located in low-income areas, like Erie. Is it because these communities lack the resources to properly educate themselves on the risks and fight against these failed industry realities? There is a growing awareness in Erie to these realities, though. We're smart people. We can see a pattern of terror burning all around us. Plastics recycling is a farce, in my opinion, another fossil fuel greenwashing tactic that only exists to extend its own existence. Should Erie take such a chance? We don't have any skin in this game other than our own. Do we have the resources to put out one of these hellscapes in east Erie? Why aren't more of us speaking out and protecting ourselves and our neighbors? Why aren't we holding our leadership's feet to the fire? John C. Lyons is an Erie-based writer, director and producer.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Should Erie's future include plastics recycling, fossil fuels?
