Polymer City
Our City

The plastics industry isn't a solution -
it's a community health & safety problem.

The plastics industry locally, nationally, and globally has been promoting “advanced” “chemical” or even “infinite recycling” as the solution to plastic pollution. It sounds good - but what does it even mean?
 

Unfortunately, so-called “advanced recycling” is just a new name for old technologies. Plastic burning technologies.

If that sounds hazardous, it's because it is.

The industry terms for plastic burning, “pyrolysis” a.k.a. “advanced” or “chemical recycling” are just fancy words to describe the process of using heat to break down plastics on a chemical level. The problem is that this process releases a lot of hazardous air pollution - including chemicals such as benzene, vinyl chloride, and dioxins (all of which are known to cause cancer).
 

And on top of that, there's still no proof that greenwashed plastic burning technologies are any better for carbon emissions than conventional fossil fuels. Even worse, the end result is NOT new plastics – it’s more (dirty) oil.

If that sounds like a scam, it's because it is.
 

East Akron already has higher rates of asthma and heart disease than 90% of the country. And it also happens to be where one of the country’s pilot plastic burning facilities is located - Alterra Energy. 
 

Alterra has been polluting East Akron for over two years, repeatedly failing multiple stack tests, with no repercussions.
 

This means they are producing more toxins than are acceptable to meet EPA requirements and are polluting the air without sufficient monitoring.
 

We’re trying to change that. We're sick of health disasters in our neighborhoods like the SMB fire in September 2024.
 

But it's not going to be easy. We’re going to need a lot of local support to cut through their greenwashing and prevent our community’s medical bills from stacking up. We want a better future for our children.
 

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