Astera runs into NIMBY concerns in Colorado

Long Beach, California-based Astera reportedly has agreed to move the location of a planned plastics recycling facility in western Colorado following objections from some of the nearby residents of the first site.

A March 13 online report by Grand Junction, Colorado-based KKCO-TV says residents of Fruita, Colorado, had expressed their opposition to the plant being located in their community at a meeting earlier this month. Such objections can be categorized as “not in my back yard” or NIMBY complaints.

On the city of Fruita website, that town’s government describes Fruita as “a community of choice where city services support the community’s core values of economic health, quality of place and lifestyle.”

The TV station quotes Astera board chair Robert Switzer as now saying, “We are hopeful that our decision is made known and that those in the Fruita area continue to educate themselves and support our sincere efforts to address and arrest the very real health problems associated with plastic disposal in the landfills in our nation.”

The report indicates Astera will instead locate the plant in “an industrial zone” in nearby Grand Junction. That city of about 65,000 residents, like Fruita, is surrounded by farms and vineyards but also has hosted gas, oil and energy sector activity.

The KKCO report quotes one local resident who indicates Astera’s NIMBY issues may not be fully resolved. “There’s a need for recycling, but I don’t know that it needs to be put into a residential agricultural area north of town here,” the resident of nearby Loma, Colorado, is quoted as saying.

Last July, Astera announced backing for its plastics recycling venture, which it describes as converting industrially generated plastic scrap into “synthetic graphene, graphite, hydrogen and other valuable commodities.”