Erie environmentalists: Reducing plastic use is better than recycling

Oct 23, 2024

If many Erie-area environmentalists had their way, there would be no plastic bottles, no plastic containers, no plastic wrappings, no plastic anything.

But knowing that plastic isn't likely to ever go away completely, members of local and state environmental groups would at least like alternatives to the International Recycling Group plant proposed for Erie. They'd also like to see federal grant money go to recipients other than IRG. While that company's plastics recycling plant would be located in the city, environmentalists here raised concerns that are also global during an editorial board with the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com.

"What we want to see is the reduction in the use of plastic and the production of plastic," said Erie Benedictine Sister Pat Lupo, environmental director at the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House.

IRG aims to convert post-consumer plastic into plastic resin that can be used to mold new plastic products and into Clean Red, a product that replaces a portion of the coke traditionally used in the steelmaking process.

"Plastics production in and of itself is a threat to human health," said Andrew Woomer, an advocacy coordinator with the southwest Pennsylvania office of the Clean Air Council, which is an environmental health advocacy organization. "And a facility like this is a justification to prolong that production," he said.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office announced in July that it will provide a loan guarantee of up to $182.6 million to finance construction of the IRG plant on former Hammermill Paper Co. property on Erie's lower east side.

From July:Government loan promise gives Erie's International Recycling Group $182 million boost

"There are many more deserving programs and projects that Department of Energy could support with those funds that would honestly and directly improve climate conditions locally and globally," said Russ Taylor, spokesperson for Our Water, Our Air, Our Rights. His organization has a mission to help people protect their right to clean air and pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment.

Jenny Tompkins said a worthy investment would be helping the makers of the kinds of plastic that aren't likely to go away, such as car parts, keep plastic dust and pellets out of the environment. Tompkins is the clean water campaign manager for PennFuture, a nonprofit focusing on a clean energy economy and protecting air, water, land and sustainable communities.

John Vanco, secretary of PennFuture's board, raised questions about the economics of plastic recycling and displayed small virgin plastic beads or nurdles that he said he picked up from the ground along a railroad track in Erie.

He said nurdles are cheaper to just make from natural gas than to make from recycled plastic. Virgin nurdles are so inexpensive in comparison that they're allowed to be lost along a railroad track, where they can go on to pollute soil and water, he said.

Vanco, also a member of the Sierra Club’s Lake Erie Group board, said he'd rather see more effort put into creating plastic alternatives that could be recycled or broken down biologically.

Mitch Hecht, chairman and founder of IRG, has previously stood behind the safety of his planned facility when concerns were raised about plastic dust and wastewater, telling the Erie Times-News earlier this year that "we think a lot of folks are dealing with information that isn't complete."

In a more recent email, Hecht said "that the recycling deniers use this false narrative that 'recycling doesn’t work technically or financially' because there is no valid reason — based on business realities, government figures or science — to oppose recycling."

PennFuture's Tompkins said there are alternatives to putting money toward recycling plastic, including a reduction in the production and use of plastics. She said there is a Global Plastics Treaty being negotiated and the United States has supported a reduction in the production of plastics.

"That could have been directly invested in from the DOE," she said.

Jess Conard, Appalachia director for Beyond Plastics, said less than 6% of plastic waste is recycled, according to Department of Energy data. She added that it's unclear why that agency continues to invest vital climate funds into plastics recycling rather than technologies that would actually reduce plastics. Conard is a resident of East Palestine, Ohio, site of a 2023 train derailment near the Pennsylvania border after which officials intentionally released and burned off toxic vinyl chloride.

"Are plastic injection projects that entail plastic products such as IRG's Clean Red truly worthy of loan funding by the DOE?" Mark Osiecki asked. He is a native of the Erie neighborhood where IRG wants to operate its plant but now lives in Heidelberg, Germany, as an independent consultant on pollution control and infrastructure projects.

"There are multiple other green steel technologies that can deliver CO2 reduction rates on the order of say 70(%) through 90%, not say 25(%) through 40(%) or 50%. ... It would be more sensible in my view that the DOE just partner with the steel manufacturers to invest in the state of the art solutions that really represent a much more sustainable green steel revolution," Osiecki said.

The environment advocates also proposed more investment in college classes and programs aimed at plastic alternatives rather than plastic development.

The environmental group members had several suggestions to help with what they see as the problems of plastics.

The Clean Air Council's Woomer proposed thinking back to how local economies functioned not that long ago.

"Growing food locally and packaging it in biodegradable materials that are made from things that are available in the area where the food is grown is something people have been doing since they've been living in large groups," he said.

Alexis Goldsmith, national organizing director for Beyond Plastics, said a great project that would reduce plastic use would be a dishwashing facility for packaging that could be washed, reused and refilled over and over. She said it would not only reduce the need for plastic packaging but also reduce emissions that would result from recycling packaging. Beyond Plastics is a nationwide project to end plastic pollution.

Report:Great Lakes beaches, including Presque Isle, suffering from plastic pollution

Taylor proposed that local events have water refilling stations for people to use instead of buying water in plastic bottles. He said another alternative is using compostable cups.

"There are some local things that you can do right away," he said.

Several of the environmental group members also stressed the importance of educating people about moving away from single-use plastics, such as silverware and straws.

"Besides focusing on production, we need to focus on changing habits," Lupo said. "We need to motivate people to act differently."

Dana Massing can be reached at [email protected].