RI Lawmakers Rally For Ban On High-Heat Waste Processing Plants

PROVIDENCE, RI — Sen. Bridget Valverde and Rep. Justine Caldwell stood on the State House steps today and spoke in support of their legislation to prohibit new high-heat waste processing plants in Rhode Island.

"We're here today to talk about protecting the health and safety of Rhode Islanders, and the health of our environment and planet," said Valverde. “Rhode Islanders do not want our state to be a destination for other peoples’ contaminated trash,” said Caldwell.

The two were flanked by a half-dozen other lawmakers and by Kevin Burdis, a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation. A group of Rhode Island residents who have been organizing against a medical waste pyrolysis plant in Kent County were also on hand.

The High Heat Waste Facilities Act of 2021 would supplement an existing ban on trash incineration in Rhode Island and extend the prohibition to plants that use processes such as pyrolysis and gasification. A hearing on the Senate bill was scheduled for Thursday evening.

Valverde and Caldwell talked in general terms about their legislation, but focused on MedRecycler, Inc., the New Jersey-based company that wants to build a waste-to-energy plant on the West Warwick-East Greenwich line. The plant would accept up to 70 tons of medical waste per day and process it using the high-heat, zero-oxygen method known as pyrolysis.

"The first time paid lobbyists for the plastics industry tried to sell me on pyrolysis was at a Senate Environment and Agriculture hearing in 2019,” said Velverde. She said they presented the process as as “a magical process; a miracle of alchemy," and maintained that it's not "incineration" because the waste is processed at high heat in the absence of oxygen.

Valverde asserted that such plants create emissions and potentially toxic byproducts while only encouraging the creation of more waste. “Incineration, gasification, pyrolysis — whatever you want to call it — only justifies more production of plastics instead of providing a solution to the root cause,” she said.

Caldwell took aim at MedRecycler."Even their name is an attempt to mislead,” Caldwell said. “Burning something is not recycling.”

She said any energy produced by the plant would not be clean, that jobs at the plant could expose workers to risk, and that carbon dioxide emissions created by the plant would “fly in the face” of the state’s climate goals. “These are not green jobs,” she said.

Caldwell said MedRecycler’s argument that it will relieve pressure on the state’s Central Landfill is not valid.

"What they want to do is bring out-of-state waste into Rhode Island,” she said. “Seventy tons per day from somewhere else. This potentially dangerous waste isn't even here, so it would not end up in our landfill.”

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"Burning waste is toxic and climate-damaging,” proclaimed Budris, the CLF lawyer. “It doesn’t matter if you call is incineration, gasification, or so-called advanced recycling. It doesn’t matter whether you burn household waste, medical waste, or plastic.”

Budris said the legislation would close the door on such facilities in Rhode Island.

Valverde was asked if the legislation would be able to stop the MedRecyler plant.

“MedRecycler has not yet been granted its solid waste license from DEM yet,” said Valverde. “So if the bill is passed and signed into law in the near future, it could prevent this facility from opening.”

However, Nicholas Campanella, the CEO of MedRecycler said this week that the legislation would have no bearing upon his company's proposal.

“We agree with bill proponents that this after-the-fact legislation will not apply to our proposal,” Campanella said in an emailed statement. “That said, a bill like this can only undermine Rhode Island's efforts to build its 21st Century economy and create jobs by imposing a blanket ban on new technology and creating uncertainty for businesses by undermining long-established regulatory processes.”

A spokesman for Campanella pointed to a Boston Globe article where Budris is quoted as saying the legislation would not stop MedRecycler because the project has already entered the licensing process.

“These bills are vital to ensure that Rhode Island does not become the destination in the Northeast for burning medical waste or plastic or solid waste,” Budris told The Globe. “There’s more at stake here than one facility.”