Thoughts about the pelleting plant in Green Bay, which prepares plastic and fiber waste for burning at a location northwest of Door County
These three articles about the waste pelleting plant in Green Bay have been published within the last year:
Paper and Plastic Instead of Coal - Researchers Team with Commercial Partner to Pelletize Materials That Would Otherwise End Up in Landfills
This mentions that they have already processed 600,000 tons of waste as fuel since 2009. They either burn it themselves, or they sell it.
New recycling technique developed in Wisconsin could help keep flexible plastics out of landfills
They plan to be ready to manufacture the pellets using the new method somewhere from 2025 to 2027.
Torrefied plastic-fiber fuel pellets as a replacement for fossil fuels — a case study life cycle assessment for Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11367-023-02198-2
This study is behind a paywall. The text available calculates the impacts for burning the waste pellets within a 50 km radius of their Green Bay facility. That is about 30 miles, but the distance may just be hypothetical rather than indicating their actual plans.
Although the Convergen pelleting plant is located in Green Bay, Convergen is privately owned by NianticVista Energy. According to a court filing, it is “a Delaware limited liability company with a principal place of business at 222 Ridgedale Avenue, Suite 302, Cedar Knolls, New Jersey 07927”.
This court filing from 2020 uses language such as "betrayal at the highest level", "saboteur", and "treachery": http://valleywatch.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SDNY-Complaint-.pdf
It alleges that NianticVista Energy secretly had Steven J. Brooks as an owner. Brooks was at the same time part of the hierarchy in the corporation which previously owned the pelleting plant in Green Bay. He allegedly used his position and access to information to get a good deal on the plant, but it got him sued.
They eventually moved in the direction of settling out-of-court, but the docket indicates it isn’t over yet: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17164817/convergen-energy-llc-v-brooks/
Reading the court document suggests caution about the leadership of Convergen is appropriate. It is written by the opposing side, so maybe it isn’t true. Yet it is concerning that the Department of Energy and Wisconsin Public Radio appear from their articles to trust Convergen completely at their word.
They don’t present the other side of things, which is especially important given the context. For context, these links criticize “chemical recycling” proposals. Convergen’s upcoming project is an example of chemical recycling.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-chemical-recycling-cant-be-trusted
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/environment-plastic-oil-recycling/ (this also criticizes other things besides chemical recycling)
The U.S. Government Accountability Office balances both sides of the question about chemical recycling:
https://www.gao.gov/blog/can-chemical-recycling-reduce-plastic-pollution
Wisconsin Public Radio could taken an approach more like the GAO to avoid over-hyping a technology which is still being developed.
These are some links about Convergen’s power plant:
Convergen has been fined for its air pollution in Michigan, northwest of Door County:
https://www.pfpi.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PFPI-Bioenergy-and-the-Stimulus-Oct-24.pdf#page=27 (scrolling down to the next page)
There are people living near the plant in Michigan who wish it was burning natural gas:
The Michigan state government produced this to try and satisfy people’s concerns:
These two links criticize the burning of plastic more generally:
https://oceana.ca/en/blog/burning-plastic-is-not-a-recycling-solution-its-more-pollution/
https://energytracker.asia/burning-plastic-a-real-waste-to-energy-solution-or-a-greenwashing-tool/
Some questions:
If burning trash ends up polluting the more western Great Lakes, how much will people in New Jersey or Delaware care?
Besides the power plant in the UP of Michigan and the company’s lab in Green Bay, where else are the waste pellets being burned?
How much does the pollution from the burning waste affect Door County?
If the allegations in the lawsuit have merit, will federal investigators work to incarcerate the perpetrators for white-collar crime?
If the allegations in the lawsuit have merit, what implications does this have about other statements made by the company?
Is the desire for green energy so great, that people are especially vulnerable to being taken in by overly optimistic proposals for chemical recycling?