Genesee County: Do Not Build the Recycling Center Beside the Flint River
The Issue
We are asking Genesee County to move the proposed Recycling and Education Center away from 609 Chavez Drive and choose a location through a transparent process that includes affected residents.
The planned facility would collect and temporarily store household hazardous waste, electronics, flammable materials and lithium-ion batteries. The county’s 2023 grant already included household hazardous waste collection. Yet the May 2024 environmental assessment assumed the future operation would not handle hazardous substances above typical residential quantities.
The county needs to explain that difference and provide the analysis addressing the actual operation, including protections against spills, fires and contaminated water.
Residents also deserve to see which other locations were considered, why this property was selected, and how existing environmental burdens and community health influenced that choice.
These are environmental-justice concerns. A service benefiting the entire county requires an honest discussion about where its burdens fall and whether the people most affected have meaningful power over the decision. Flint’s history makes that responsibility especially serious.
We are asking Genesee County to:
1. End plans to build this facility at 609 Chavez Drive.
2. Pause further construction commitments and ground disturbance at this location while residents’ concerns and alternative sites receive public review.
3. Publish a comparison of alternative locations, including environmental conditions, surrounding land uses, transportation access and impacts on nearby residents.
4. Include affected Flint residents and environmental-justice organizations in selecting a new location.
5. Publish the complete project budget, funding sources, contracts and amendments.
6. Provide accessible opportunities for residents to influence the decision, with written responses to their questions before further commitments are made.
Flint and Genesee County deserve responsible recycling and safe household hazardous waste disposal. Residents deserve to help determine where and how that service is provided.
Flint doesn't deserve to become an industrial nightmare.
Our petition remains open. We will continue collecting signatures and asking the county to act.
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The Issue
We are asking Genesee County to move the proposed Recycling and Education Center away from 609 Chavez Drive and choose a location through a transparent process that includes affected residents.
The planned facility would collect and temporarily store household hazardous waste, electronics, flammable materials and lithium-ion batteries. The county’s 2023 grant already included household hazardous waste collection. Yet the May 2024 environmental assessment assumed the future operation would not handle hazardous substances above typical residential quantities.
The county needs to explain that difference and provide the analysis addressing the actual operation, including protections against spills, fires and contaminated water.
Residents also deserve to see which other locations were considered, why this property was selected, and how existing environmental burdens and community health influenced that choice.
These are environmental-justice concerns. A service benefiting the entire county requires an honest discussion about where its burdens fall and whether the people most affected have meaningful power over the decision. Flint’s history makes that responsibility especially serious.
We are asking Genesee County to:
1. End plans to build this facility at 609 Chavez Drive.
2. Pause further construction commitments and ground disturbance at this location while residents’ concerns and alternative sites receive public review.
3. Publish a comparison of alternative locations, including environmental conditions, surrounding land uses, transportation access and impacts on nearby residents.
4. Include affected Flint residents and environmental-justice organizations in selecting a new location.
5. Publish the complete project budget, funding sources, contracts and amendments.
6. Provide accessible opportunities for residents to influence the decision, with written responses to their questions before further commitments are made.
Flint and Genesee County deserve responsible recycling and safe household hazardous waste disposal. Residents deserve to help determine where and how that service is provided.
Flint doesn't deserve to become an industrial nightmare.
Our petition remains open. We will continue collecting signatures and asking the county to act.
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Petition created on September 2, 2026