MedRecycler Foes Plan State House Rally Ahead Of Senate Hearing

PROVIDENCE, RI — Opponents of a proposed medical waste-to-energy plant on the West Warwick-East Greenwich line are planning a rally at the State House ahead of a Senate hearing.

Organizer Denise Wenzl Lopez has been asking members of her group to gather on the State House steps on Thursday afternoon. Lopez is a leader of a movement to block construction and operation of a medical waste processing plant on the East Greenwich-West Warwick line. The plant planned by the New Jersey-based MedRecycler, Inc. would process up to 70 tons of medical waste per day using a high-heat, zero-oxygen process known as pyrolysis.

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The protesters won't be alone, because two lawmakers behind legislation that would ban solid waste incinerators and other high-heat waste processing facilities in the state plan a media event on the south steps of the State House starting at 3:15 p.m.

Rep. Justine A. Caldwell and Sen. Bridget G. Valverde have introduced the High-Heat Waste Facility Act of 2021 (2021-H 5923, 2021-S 0527). Valverde and Caldwell will be joined by Kevin Budris, staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation.

Medrecycler CEO Nicholas Campanella asserts that the plant will be clean, green, and responsibly run. He says the plant will reduce the volume of solid waste that goes to Rhode Island's Central Landfill while generating energy and delivering tax dollars to West Warwick.

Lopez and members of her group say the plant will create harmful emissions using untested technology, generate too much truck traffic, and present unacceptable risk to surrounding neighborhoods.

Attorney General Peter Neronha last month expressed concerns about the project and asked the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management to halt further review of the facility until the technology undergoes more testing and all state and all state and municipal approvals are in place.

RIDEM on April 14 closed public comment on the facility's license application after receiving more than 900 pages of input from dozens of individuals. RIDEM previously issued a statement of conditional intent to grant a license to MedRecycler. RIDEM is expected to issue its final decision on the license by mid-July.