Planning Board Hears Recycleworks Proposal

BRAINTREE, MA — Of the residents at Tuesday night's planning board meeting who live near a proposed private recycling facility on West Street, none are pleased with the prospects of the new addition to the neighborhood.

That group expressed their displeasure with the proposal from Recycleworks at Tuesday night’s planning board meeting. The company is hoping to move its private recycling business to a 36,000 square-foot portion of a 127,000-square-foot building at 530 West St. Recycleworks, which is currently located in Weymouth, allows private clients to bring out of code drinks to their facility to be recycled. The containers are destroyed for reuse and the liquids are adjusted to a proper pH level before being poured into the sewer system.

Representatives for Recycleworks stressed that their business is only exclusively to private clients, and only those customers are allowed to bring items to be recycled.

"We’re not a recycling center, we’re not a trash transfer station, we’re not open to the public. We’re a small controlled facility," Daniel Buonagurio, the president of Recycleworks, said. "We’re a completely indoor operation and we are monitored 24/7. We are gated and secure."

The proposed route from Interstate 93 would take trucks from Granite Street to Forbes Road to Brooks Drive to West Street. A secondary route would have the trucks leave I-93 at exit 5 and access West Street from Randolph. Buonagurio said that trucks traveling to the building would have to follow a preassigned route and arrive at a time arraigned beforehand.

Neighbors at the meeting were concerned about the prospect of more traffic on their road, along with the box trucks and tractor-trailers that would drop off items. Assurances that the trucks would be able to make the turns, arrive at predetermined times and avoid the Five Corners area did little to calm worries.

"We will not be able to use our property at all because of the danger of it. It will destroy our property values," Jeanine Perotti, who lives next to the property, said.

Other concerns included possible pollution.

Planning board Chairman Robert Harnais said while the board cannot outright reject the proposal, they can vote to assign conditions.

The hearing was continued to Sept. 18.

Image Credit: Dan Libon/Patch