The Editorial Board: Don't subsidize PVC

New York banned plastic shopping bags in 2020 because of rampant pollution. Now, a company is seeking taxpayer support to build a plant in Lockport that would manufacture single-use plastic food packaging as well as PVC products, which can pose health risks. The Lockport Industrial Development Agency should reject the proposal.

This is not the time to take a step backward. It is also not the time to go against established science. A plastics factory proposed for the Town of Lockport, SRI CV Plastics Inc., would double down on a product that – with 400 million tons of plastic waste produced every year – is acknowledged to be one of the biggest polluters in the world.

SRI, which is requesting subsidies, would focus on the production of a single type of plastic, PVC, whose key ingredient – vinyl chloride – has proven links to cancer that are documented as far back as the 1970s. This is the same chemical that was set on fire and released into the atmosphere in East Palestine, Ohio, after a February freight train derailment. There have been other such derailments, as well as deadly factory explosions and communities that have suffered from the toxic exposure PVC manufacturing brings with it.

Vinyl chloride is a known bad actor – classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a Group A human carcinogen – that has been linked to a range of health problems, including liver damage, cancer and reproductive disorders. Once released into the environment, vinyl chloride can persist for decades, contaminating soil, water and air, and posing a threat to wildlife and ecosystems. PVC is difficult, if not impossible, to recycle, due to the poisons that would be released under most common methods.

But despite its reputation, PVC use is growing worldwide, mainly for water pipes, medical devices, and vinyl flooring and siding, even as recent studies indicate that the leachate from PVC water pipes could pose previously unsuspected dangers of exposure to toxic chemicals.

More than 60 organizations – led by Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics – have signed a letter urging the Lockport IDA to reject SRI CV’s request for support. One of many concerning statistics cited in the letter is that, since 2000, four of the top U.S. PVC manufacturers have accumulated 245 safety and environmental violations, incurring more than $50 million in fines. Other groups signing the letter include the Natural Resources Defense Council, Clean Air Coalition, the Citizens Environmental Coalition, and New York Public Interest Research Group.

SRI CV owner Varun Kumar Velumani asserts that the 13,870-square-foot manufacturing facility he plans for 1000 IDA Park Drive in Lockport will recycle and reuse other plastics to make its products and will keep any fumes within the facility. He also distributed a report on the safety of PVC pipes that turned out to be generated by ChatGPT AI software and was not published by a scientific journal, as claimed. That’s a red flag.

The vinyl industry is a huge lobbying force that has generated plenty of reports written by real people that support its products. Resorting to AI only lessens this company’s credibility. Claiming it is from a trusted source multiplies suspicions.

Attorney Terry Burton, who is representing SRI CV, said, “A world without plastics is unrealistic.” That’s surely true, but taxpayers should think twice before subsidizing a company that wants to add even more disposable food containers to the heaps of plastic trash already choking waterways and sitting in landfills.

At a time when many cities, states and countries are looking to scale back PVC manufacturing and use, as well as trying to put less plastic into the environment, it seems dangerously counterproductive to roll out the welcome mat for a plastics company by providing $600,000 in subsidies and tax incentives.

Lockport Industrial Development Agency should say “No, thanks” to SRI CV Plastics Inc.

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