Sonoma County Plastics Recycler Resynergi Says It’s Leaving California

A Sonoma County plastic recycling startup announced Thursday that it plans to move operations out of California following public opposition to a facility in Rohnert Park.

Resynergi aims to recycle plastic waste that might otherwise end up in landfills. The startup was seeking permits to expand operations at a facility from SOMO Village, a new mixed-use development, until community members had loudly expressed their concern in recent months about the possible environmental and safety impacts.

“We will be moving our operations out of state, and it means that we can accelerate our growth,” Resynergi CEO Brian Bauer said. “We have plans to be in over 200 locations throughout North America, and this is our next step in that growth acceleration.”

An online petition opposing the facility was launched in early August and gathered over five thousand signatures. Residents also showed up at public meetings to share their discontent, particularly due to the fact that the facility is a few hundred feet away from a high school.

While Resynergi officials have described their work as an innovative process for breaking down and recycling plastics with minimal toxic byproducts, critics say the technology is not new and the facility is just an incinerator by another name.

“It’s not just an incinerator; it actually has parts of the facility that are explosive. Placing a facility like this next to a school, literally within hundreds of feet of a school, is very alarming,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics.

The group filed an intent to sue Resynergi over permit issues, claiming the company’s recycling operations violated the Clean Air Act.

Bauer rejected assertions that the facility would pose a health or safety risk to community members, but acknowledged that the public pushback played a role in the company’s decision.

Bauer did not share exactly where the new site will be, but the company’s announcement said the new site will be in an industrially zoned area, which will “provide the scale and infrastructure needed to keep pace with the urgent and ever-growing demand for plastics recycling.”

The company leader also didn’t definitively rule out operating in California in the future.

“We can definitely educate the communities better than we did in advance,” Bauer said. “We thought that they would study it and look at the [Bay Area Air Quality Management District] reports and that would be good enough for their education, but it clearly was not.”

Williams also said she’s not done campaigning against the facility.

“They haven’t left town yet, they haven’t withdrawn their application for the air permit, they haven’t applied for their solid waste facility permit, and they have been operating for years illegally at three different locations in Sonoma County,” Williams said, alluding to three notices of violation that air district officials issued to the company last month for unpermitted business at three sites.

Bauer agreed that there is no reason for the company to continue pursuing an air permit and insisted that the company worked with air regulators to acquire necessary permits in the past.

Williams said she plans to keep pushing regulators to hold the company accountable and didn’t rule out continuing to pursue a lawsuit.

“The regulatory agencies that regulate these types of facilities — these incinerators in California — need to follow through because if they don’t, then it sends a very clear message that you can construct and operate pieces of industrial equipment in California without any consequence,” Williams said.