Opponents of a proposal to build a plastics production plant packed a hearing in Lockport on Thursday to demand that the town’s industrial development agency reject the company’s bid for tax breaks.
The opponents criticized the concept as harmful to the environment and the community, and denounced the company’s owner for citing a “peer-reviewed” scientific article that may have been produced by artificial intelligence as support of the project.
In an unusual display of public interest in the normally quiet Lockport IDA, about 17 people crowded a conference room to voice their opposition to a $2.43 million proposal by SRI CV Plastics, which wants to set up its first U.S. production facility to make PVC pipes and single-use plastic packaging for food.
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The critics warned of the dangers of toxic emissions and exposure to dioxins and PCBs found in the PVC piping, and the risk of microplastics and plastic pellets – known as “nurdles” – getting into water and fish.
And they said that subsidizing the project with tax breaks runs counter to efforts by the state and even some businesses to move away from plastic, particularly PVC and single-use plastic that can’t be recycled.
“We know that we have a plastic problem. We know the plastic is ending up in the waterways,” said Margaux Valente, legal director for Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper. “We know that there will be plastic pollution.…
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