A waste-to-energy business proposes burning up to 200 tons of old tires a day at a new 24-hour recycling center on U.S. 41.
In its rezoning application to the county, Pasco County Synergy LLC said its high-temperature, clean-burning machinery would generate less smoke than a home fireplace.
The company pledges the operation won't use an incinerator but a "thermal destruction unit" that causes "molecular destruction due to high temperatures."
The application was filed by Anthony Fraccalvieri and Michael Dakis for 19 acres on the northeast corner of U.S. 41 and Fontaine Avenue. It's a half mile south of the Hernando County line.
The company plans to destroy 160 tons of tires a day at the recycling center during its first year of operation, according to the application.
In the second year, Pasco County Synergy said it would increase daily tire consumption to 200 tons and destroy 120 tons of paper, cardboard and agricultural waste.
A machine would grind the tires into 1- to 2-inch pieces.
Some could become mulch, but most would be consumed in the burner, which would produce hot gases to drive an electricity-generating turbine.
Any ashes left over from the operation - the application said it would run 24 hours a day, seven days a week - are suitable for fertilizer.
The firm has applied for a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
It maintains emissions will meet state and federal air quality standards.
Incinerators, even in rural parts of Pasco, typically generate controversy.
In the early 1990s, a medical waste incinerator proposed near State Road 52, about 8 miles southwest of the Synergy site, whipped up a neighborhood storm.
One of the leading anti-incinerator activists was Pat Mulieri, whose opposition led to her election as county commissioner.
Hearings on the rezoning request are scheduled before the Pasco planning commission on July 9 and the county commissioners on July 29. St. Petersburg Times