Development officials in Lockport, N.Y., will meet this week to discuss amendments designed to appease critics of a plastics processing plant proposed for the town.
In response to objections raised by some residents and a coalition of 62 environmental groups, SRI CV Plastics Inc. is offering to abandon plans to make PVC pipe there. Instead, it said it will limit production to a variety of injection molded, non-PVC, disposable food containers, food packaging and utensils.
SRI CV President Varunkumar Velumani said in an amended application for financial assistance that the new plant will use polyethylene, polypropylene and/or polystyrene pellets, and "suitable classes of clean, shredded waste plastic."
Velumani has submitted the amended plan to the Town of Lockport Industrial Development Agency, which will hold a public hearing on his application for public assistance Sept. 14.
The changes are not enough to satisfy environmentalists, however, said Judith Enck, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator who heads Beyond Plastics, a Bennington, Vt.-based group that is urging the development agency not to help finance the project.
"Beyond Plastics and others continue to vigorously oppose public subsidies for this proposal. While it's good that the company has moved [away] from PVC plastic, the last thing we need is more single-use plastic utensils and packaging," Enck said in a Sept. 12 written statement to Plastics News.
"This is the last thing a responsible Industrial Development Agency should be funding."
Velumani is seeking $600,000 in state and local funding and tax breaks. Velumani has said he will take the $2.34 million project elsewhere if he does not receive assistance. He expects to create 20 full-time jobs over three years.
SRI is based in Perundurai, India, and is owned by industrial machinery supplier Veva Holdings Private Ltd. of India. The 13,870-square-foot facility would be the company's first U.S. plant.