ABC Recycling Proposed Metal Shredder on Marine Drive
ABC Recycling, a Canadian metal recycling company, recently bought roughly 20 acres from Heidelberg Industries (formerly Lehigh Cement) on Marine Drive near the city limits.
ABC plans to construct a metal shredding facility on the site by 2024.
The Port of Bellingham signed a 15 year lease with ABC on the waterfront. ABC will truck raw material to the Marine Drive location, stockpile it and shred it. It will then be trucked from Marine Drive to the waterfront and loaded onto large vessels to be shipped afar and made into new products.
A metal shredder on Marine Drive -
• Would be noisy and able to operate 24/7
• Emits dust, volatile organic compounds VOCs and heavy metal particulate matter that will likely be carried into neighborhoods
• Will significantly increase truck traffic down Bennet Avenue and throughout Bellingham.
• At risk for large and prolonged fire and explosive events where residents will be recommended to stay indoors to
avoid breathing toxic fumes. *
• The location of this facility is in the Urban Growth Area (UGA) and densely
populated.
Some may say:
“Recycling is good though!”
Of course, recycling is good, but not when you compare that to the human toll of
exposure to toxic substances, incessant noise where people can’t get a good
night’s sleep and devaluation of neighborhoods, especially in disadvantaged
neighborhoods. It’s a Sophie’s choice that companies use when they do not want
to spend the money, time and research to make their operations truly safe and
sustainable.
“You just don’t want it in your backyard (NIMBY)”
Nobody should live with such a facility in their backyard. These kinds of facilities
are best sited in large, densely urban settings and even then, there needs to
be more research and safeguards. We all need to care about the health and
well-being of people and stop polluting the environment we so desperately need
to restore.
“They’re creating jobs!”
How many people have they hired on the waterfront? We don’t know, but the lease says 5. This
in comparison to the many union jobs being created at the Waterfront Development next door.
And many of those jobs are part time. Manufacturing jobs are on the rise and the unemployment
rate for Washington in April 2023 was 3.4%. Do we really need these kinds of jobs?!