A global industrial waste company that sought to open a recycling facility in a historic Kansas City, Kansas, neighborhood withdrew its plans after organized opposition from environmental activists and community advocates.
Reworld, which manages industrial waste and converts it into energy, honed in on the city’s Armourdale neighborhood for its new processing facility and said four months ago it was “excited” to work in the Kansas City community.
But the company quietly withdrew its petition Nov. 10, before it was set to meet again with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County’s planning commission. Company representatives had billed the facility as positive economic development and a sustainable waste management initiative that redirected waste from aging landfills.
Concern from Armourdale residents and environmental activists arose when Reworld representatives did not address potential flood risks, traffic volumes and health effects.
“This win belongs to the people,” said Beto Lugo Martinez, executive director of the local environmental group RiSE4EJ.
The opposition effort involved neighbors who spoke at public meetings, translated messages, posted flyers, gathered signatures, counted trucks and made calls, he said.
“It’s proof that grassroots power works and that when communities come together, we can protect our health, our air and our future,” Lugo Martinez said.
The city-county planning commission delayed its decision on Reworld’s requested special use permit in August until the company addressed some of the neighbor’s concerns.
The company was set to go before the commission the same day it withdrew its plans.
Linda Ribakusky, a spokesperson for Reworld said in a statement: “Reworld has withdrawn its application for the proposed Kansas City material processing facility because of changing business circumstances.”
“Reworld remains committed to driving innovation in resource recovery,” she said.
The Armourdale neighborhood, which used to be its own city, sits near the Missouri border and is surrounded on all sides by the Kansas River, highways and an interstate. It has become a home to a significant Spanish-speaking population along with industrial development.
“Industry already overburdens specific communities — mostly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and lower wealth communities,” said Jessica Roff, the plastics and petrochemicals program manager at the U.S. and Canada Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.
That is why it is critical, she said, to hold industry accountable.
“When they don’t deliver, they don’t get to operate,” Roff said.
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
