BioHiTech’s Solid Waste Facility

In 2018, a company called BioHiTech proposed a solid waste processing facility on the site of the old BASF chemical factory in Rensselaer alongside the Hudson River. The new 72,000-square foot facility would turn mixed municipal waste, such as tires and plastics, into fuel.

BioHiTech’s process would have included trucking garbage into Rensselaer, sorting it in big pits, and pulling out the plastic and paper. The separated plastic and paper would again be trucked to a cement plant to be burned.

In 2020, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation rejected BioHiTech’s state permit application. 

BioHiTech appealed and pushed for more land acquisition at the old industrial site. They were again denied.

The REC staunchly opposes this project as further pollution of Rensselaer’s riverfront. The old, polluted BASF site should be remediated and used for non-polluting purposes. Historical pollution is not a license for continued pollution along the Hudson River, especially where thousands of people live.