Opinion: Masquerading as green, state bill would unleash toxins into poor neighborhoods

Less than a dozen blocks away from my home and within a mile of downtown Oakland, a multi-ton pile of scrap metal threatens to spontaneously combust under the hot sun. Old cars and appliances, batteries, and gasoline vapors release cadmium, lead and zinc into the air and soil, the heavy metals and toxic particulates making their way towards dozens of schools, health care centers and my neighbors’ homes. This is Radius Recycling’s metal shredding facility, one of nine in the state.

As executive director of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, I’ve spent decades pushing recyclers like Radius to be better neighbors. But a new bill, drafted by the metal shredding industry and facing an imminent vote in the California Assembly, would gut oversight of these dangerous facilities an