Curious about what happens at Akron's Alterra recycling plant? We took a look inside
Alterra Energy President Jeremy DeBenedictis said the Ellet plant would maintain its current standards even as President Donald Trump's administration and Republican lawmakers dismantle federal and state environmental protections.
DeBenedictis said his company encourages industrywide, fair, fact-based, transparent regulation, "so that's why we're helping to educate people on how to set up those rules for this type of industry."
"We live here," he said, "half of our company lives in the Greater Akron community, and we work here, too. We're going to do what we believe is the best thing, and if it's better than what the (Environmental Protection Agency) says in some cases then we'll do that. But we want to make sure we're keeping the community safe and keeping our employees safe. We believe in the thresholds the EPA has set. If for some reason it was a threshold that was lower, we would stick with where we're at right now."
Steve Gross, Alterra's general counsel, said the company has a business incentive to operate conscientiously. Setting a high standard, he said, makes it harder for competitors and gives Alterra the advantage.
The facility at 1200 E. Waterloo Road converts hard-to-recycle plastics — chip bags and bottle caps, for example — into synthetic oil through a process called pyrolysis. Then, Alterra sells it to third parties who makes new products including chemicals, waxes and lubricants, DeBenedictis said.
He views it as a way to solve the problem of plastic pollution.
"Let's not count on landfilling as a Band-Aid," DeBenedictis said, "let's actually solve the problem."
"Every barrel that we make here of product replaces a barrel that someone would have had to extract from the ground, so it replaces a fossil barrel," he said, explaining that the factory, operating 24/7, produces 275 barrels per day. A majority of plastic packaging — 98%, he said — is created with oil extracted from the earth.
While governments might be retreating from sustainability initiatives, it's people, he said, who ultimately make policy using their wallets and their vote, and there's significant demand from multiple generations to stay the course.
"I talk to my kids, and that's the next generation of leaders, and they see what's happening," DeBenedictis said. "They see all the stuff going to the landfill, and they want us to reuse materials as much as we can."
How does the process work?
Some people have accused the facility of being a plastic incinerator. However, DeBenedictis said, incinerating plastic would leave nothing behind for Alterra to sell.
On a guided tour, Bobby VerBrugge, Alterra's operations director, explained the process.
Converting plastic waste back into oil is achieved through pyrolysis. First, Alterra purchases shredded plastic.
Then, the shredded plastic, called feedstock, goes into an extruder where it's melted into a "Laffy Taffy consistency," said VerBrugge. Then, it's vaporized in an airless reactor to keep it from combusting.
VerBrugge said the "Laffy Taffy" is converted by the reactor into a liquid, and then a gas. The more of the gas that's collected and condensed, he said, the more Alterra can sell.
According to an EPA draft permit, unusable gases created during the process are sent to what's called a vapor combustor unit (VCU) "for control of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants" which is required to destroy at least 98% of unusable gases created during the process.
The permit allows the facility to emit a certain number of pollutants annually: 35.2 tons of nitrogen oxides, 34.7 tons of volatile organic compounds, 13.44 tons of carbon monoxide and less than 10 tons of sulfur dioxide and particulate.
DeBenedictis said Alterra's VCU destroys 99.6% of those unusable gases, "which puts us well, well below all the thresholds the EPA has in our air permit."
Permit renewal hearing draws criticism
Alterra is in the process of renewing a permit that will allow its continued operation, and "ensures we continue to meet strict environmental regulations," said company spokesman Omar Terrie.
"The way the process works," DeBenedictis said, "is that we've been operating with a valid air permit since 2015. In 2017, it was up for renewal; we renewed it and it was good for five years, which means you have to renew it again in five years."
For the past two-and-a-half years, he said, Alterra has been in the midst of the renewal process.
He said the new permit under consideration contains additional regulations, recordkeeping/reporting requirements and operational restrictions.
Dina Pierce, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said via email the permit also reduces the facility's feed capacity from 6,250 pounds per hour to 5,000.
"In 2017, the company applied for and was granted a permit modification to increase its feed capacity to 6,250 pounds per hour," Pierce said. "The company, however, failed to implement the change within the stipulated 18-month time frame. As a result, the company's current maximum feed rate remains at 5,000 pounds per hour."
"We monitor monthly, we report semiannually (to the EPA) those monthly records," VerBrugge said.
Alterra received significant resistance from residents at a May 28 hearing, who told the Ohio EPA they doubt the company can operate in a way that's responsible to the community, criticizing the plant's proximity to a Head Start and densely packed neighborhoods, and said they believe granting the permit will allow Alterra to release more pollutants into the air, making people sick. Some reported headaches after marching near the facility, and cited increased asthma rates in the area.
The volume of comments prompted the Ohio EPA to extend the public comment deadline, which closed June 18.
DeBenedictis said the facility hasn't leaked in the two years it's been fully operational.
Nor has it failed a stack test — a measurement, VerBrugge said, of what's emanating from the company's vapor combustion unit conducted, said DeBenedictis, by an independent third party and observed firsthand by the EPA.
"Imagine I put a probe in the exhaust of your car," DeBenedictis said. The data collected, he explained, is used to "help with the modeling for the plant's renewal."
If people in the surrounding areas are being made sick by the company, why are the people who work there unaffected, he asked, pointing out that he'd been diagnosed with asthma at a young age.
"We're closest to the actual process, the daily routine," he said, adding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cleared the plant as a safe place to work.
Angela Sot, Alterra's marketing and community relations manager, said the company is "somewhat of an unknown, and there's definitely some misconceptions out there," between what industry in the region has done before and what Alterra is doing now.
Sot invited some of the groups opposed to Alterra's operations in to take a tour, but she said they've declined for unknown reasons.
DeBenedictis said Alterra is minuscule compared to other area plants, some of which have been operating for decades — so small, in fact, that the air permit isn't federally enforceable.
"As Angela said, there's a history over the last hundred years of industrialization in the area," he said, "and there's also misinformation out there on the social channels because we're like the hot topic right now," pointing out that there are area organizations opposing the polymer and petroleum industry, two groups Alterra seeks to connect.
Pierce of the Ohio EPA said via email the agency will now review every submitted comment, responding to them in writing.
"The time to complete this can vary depending on the number of comments and the complexities they might include," said Pierce. "After the written responses are ready, and any needed changes are made to the draft permit, a decision will be made on whether a final permit will be issued."
Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413.
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