"Buffeted by PFAS-emitting industries, Fayetteville could soon be home to a financially troubled company that wants to turn tons of plastic waste into diesel fuel using a polluting, energy-intensive process called pyrolysis."

"The company tried educational chatbots and cryptocurrency. Then nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, of movies and cars. Even a service to Catholic churches allowing them to manage their finances using blockchain instead of banks.

None of it succeeded. Now, the firm with a troubled financial history has suddenly changed its plans to convert roughly 7,000 tons of plastic each year into ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel in a low-income neighborhood in Fayetteville where more than 70 percent of 731 residents in the census block group are minorities, and 38 percent are low-income, according to state data.

The facility would have been just 900 feet from Blounts Creek, a tributary to the Cape Fear River.

Waste Energy Corp. had intended to operate a furnace used in a high-temperature, no-oxygen process called pyrolysis there in an 18,000-square-foot warehouse near Sam Cameron Avenue and Cool Spring Street, converting the plastic waste to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel."

Lisa Sorg reports for Inside Climate News March 1, 2025. [2]