Our state environmental agency should not be endorsing a false solution that will put Connecticut communities at risk.

With the Hartford incinerator expected to permanently shutter next year, many are left wondering where to turn for a solution. Fortunately, legislators are considering a bill that would reform the state’s recycling system and help get us out of this polluting, expensive mess.

The last several months have exposed the deep-rooted issues that communities of color have faced for generations. Ongoing police brutality and the militarized response to protests and civil unrest have shone a light on the systemic racism and injustice that permeate every layer of our society. At the same time, COVID-19 has disproportionately sickened and killed people of color whose communities are home to polluting facilities and terrible air quality.

Some people have been using the coronavirus health emergency as an opportunity to push misinformation and sow confusion in service of profit during this time of public crisis. The plastics industry has pursued rollbacks of single-use plastics bans based on unsound science. Big oil has demanded bailouts. And opponents of Connecticut’s bottle bill have claimed that bottle redemption programs are unsafe.