By: Rachel Meyer, Ohio River Valley Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: July 15, 2025
About: Resolution Against Plastic Pyrolysis
To: Luzerne County, PA Infrastructure Committee
My name is Rachel Meyer. I am the Ohio River Valley Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. Moms is a national nonprofit which has 1.5 million total members, 107,000 in PA including about 200 in Luzerne County. Our mission is to protect children from air pollution. On behalf of these members, I would like to voice support for a resolution against plastic pyrolysis.
While this technology has been labeled “advanced recycling” by industry groups, it is neither advanced nor recycling. It is considered incineration by the EPA and therefore, according to the EPA, requires certain safeguards such as scrubbers and monitors for the air pollution generated. Any facility using pyrolysis to incinerate plastic will be generating toxic pollution. It is telling that the industry pushed for exemption from the state through legislation reclassifying advanced recycling as manufacturing. This allows companies such as Alterra to be even less responsible regarding their negative impact on people’s health. One must ask why industry felt it was necessary to obtain an exemption through PA SB 1808 for technologies to protect health. If the pyrolysis was truly not generating high levels of pollution, this exemption would not be needed.
When plastic is heated and burned, many harmful chemicals and particles are released. Consider that plastics are now estimated to contain over 16,000 chemicals. Potential emissions include climate-warming carbon dioxide, hazardous air oollutants, nitrogen oxides, VOCs, heavy metals, dioxins, particulate matter and many more. Many of these substances are carcinogenic. Some of the other health impacts include asthma attacks, heart disease, neurological problems, lung disease, damage to the immune system, endocrine disruption, diabetes, reproductive and developmental problems, preterm birth and low birth weight.
It is the children who will suffer most if such a facility becomes operational. Children breathe faster than adults, so they inhale more air and can be exposed to more air pollution than adults, especially relative to their body size. Children exercise more and spend more time outside than adults, which means that they can breathe more outdoor air pollution. Children’s lungs and brains are still developing, and developing lungs and brains are more sensitive to pollution.
There is no good place for such a facility and certainly not Sugarloaf and Luzerne County. I applaud the creation of a resolution opposing any advanced recycling operations in the county, including Alterra in Sugarloaf.