Almost three years after the city denied a controversial scrap metal operation’s bid to open on the Southeast Side, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration gave the OK to a similar polluting business, Sims Metal Management, to continue shredding cars, appliances and other junk at its longtime home in Pilsen.
Sims runs junked cars and other large items through massive shredding equipment that separates and salvages metal for resale. The process creates air pollution, and that’s been the focus of concern around the operation’s permit application since it was filed in December 2021.
Sims is the only car-shredding operation in Chicago, and community members sought to derail the company’s efforts to get a new permit from the city. Some called for a health impact study to determine if Sims and other nearby polluters in the industrial area of Pilsen are harming residents.
The health department said in a statement that it “will enforce compliance with the permit conditions,” and that “any violations or risks identified will result in immediate corrective action to protect the community.”
In a statement, Sims said "this approval is the right decision so that the critical work of recycling can continue in Chicago," referring to the salvaging of scrap metal. "We remain fully committed to continuing to achieve the city’s operational expectations.”
Sims has run afoul of federal and state pollution laws in the past.
The business at 2500 S. Paulina St. is in the process of building pollution-control equipment mandated by the state following a lawsuit. In 2021, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul sued Sims saying the business had not demonstrated it was reducing air pollution.
The company previously entered into a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to improve its pollution controls.
Sims was then required by EPA to install air monitors around its Pilsen operation in 2022.
Those air monitor results were monitored by the EPA, and city officials said the findings were considered as they decided the merits of Sims’ permit application.
“Emissions from Sims would not cause either short- or long-term health effects for the community near the facility,” the city has said, citing EPA findings.
The city said air monitoring will continue.
The Sims outcome is much different than one for another similar metal scrapper.
In February 2022, the public health department of then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot rejected a permit application from the owner of the relocated and rebranded General Iron metal-shredding business. General Iron was moving from its longtime home in Lincoln Park, where neighbors complained about the pollution, smells and noise from the operation.
In a letter to General Iron’s owner, health officials said then that they found “the facility proposes to undertake an inherently dangerous activity in a vulnerable community.”
That fully built operation is standing idle at East 116th Street along the Calumet River. The company brought multiple lawsuits against the city over the matter. Two court cases are still pending.
"It's abundantly clear that [the health department] did not apply the same standards to Sims," the Southeast Side operation's owner, Reserve Management, said in a statement.
Similar to the Southeast Side, Pilsen is also considered an “environmental justice” community, which refers to a low-income area that already is inundated with pollution and other social stressors that can have an effect on the health of residents.
