Ten Key Points About This Struggle

• LaFarge wants to burn TONS of tires in their cement kiln, directly across the street from the RCS middle school and high school, and in very close proximity to both district elementary schools.
• Because the town board amended the local Clean Air Law in November 2020 (and bypassed the strict county pollution law in the process), LaFarge is well on its way to making tire-burning happen.
• Burning tires along with coal *might* have a very modest positive impact on carbon emissions, but it has also been shown to release highly toxic chemicals and metals into the air, water, and soil, even when burned in high-temperature kilns.
• These chemical emissions have been linked to enormously consequential health concerns like cancer and learning disabilities.
• Again: the kiln is in extremely close proximity to where our kids learn and play.
• LaFarge wants to do this because burning tires is much cheaper than burning coal alone, and they are oriented toward maximizing profit (not safeguarding our kids' air).
• Plants that get permission to burn tires often go on to get permission to burn other hazardous waste materials as well. There is VERY obvious action in Coeymans (tire-purchasing contracts, land purchases, transit applications, proposals, etc.) that seems to be setting the table for an impending and large-scale incineration enterprise.
• Some powerful people seem to think that we don't have the required brains, guts, or heart to stand up for ourselves and each other and declare that this is our community and that we're not going to let it go up in smoke without a fight.
• Those powerful people are wrong.
• Stay engaged. Stay connected. We are just getting started.