Chicago hunger strike against recycling plant grows: 'We're starving ourselves to save people's lives'

Activists oppose metal shredder moving to East Side, a low-income Latino community reeling from the effects of industrial pollution

Hunger strikers on Chicago's Southeast Side have gone nearly four weeks without food to protest against environmental racism, and now the city is beginning to reconsider its stance on the controversial metal shredder that started it all.

I share your commitment to equity and fully understand that our frontline communities, particularly on the South and West Sides of Chicago, have been significantly impacted by environmental pollution and other compounding environmental issues, for multiple generations," wrote Lori Lightfoot, the city's mayor, in a letter from last Tuesday.