Health concerns have been raised over plans to open the UK’s first plastic film recycling facility.
Endolys Ltd announced plans to install pyrolysis oil production units at the former Cleveland Bridge site in Darlington, which it has taken over.
Liberal Democrat campaigner Simon Thorley has launched a petition calling for plans to be halted, over concerns about the impact of a plant which “chemically breaks down plastic waste in the middle of our community”.
A spokesman for Endolys said the process used diverted “materials away from incineration and landfill” and the appropriate environmental permits would be sought.
Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition process that can chemically break down plastic into its constituent oil and gas, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Mr Thorley, who previously stood as a Tees Valley mayoral candidate, said he did not believe this was a “simple, safe recycling plant”.
“Google what a plastics pyrolysis plant does and make your own mind up,” he said.
“I’ve made mine up, and we can’t allow it here.”
Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen disputed the claims and praised the impact the new facility would have on jobs and investment in the region.
He said turning a disused site into “good quality jobs for local people” was “exactly the kind of project our area needs”.
Endolys said plastic film was one of the most challenging plastic materials to recycle in the UK, with no current large-scale recycling facilities available and limited kerbside collection.
The first phase of the development would see six units process 60,000 tonnes of shredded plastic film waste into 40,000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil each year.
All of the film waste will be sourced from municipal waste facilities.
A spokesman explained the process took place within “fully enclosed vessels and within a building”.
They added: “It does not involve combustion and, in fact, diverts materials away from incineration and landfill, delivering an estimated 170,000 tonnes of CO2 savings per year.”