Latest news with #InternationalRecyclingGroup
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Community reels after $300 million project is unexpectedly pulled: 'I am personally devastated'
Governmental shake-ups have forced plans for a Pennsylvania recycling plan to be scrapped, Waste Dive reported. International Recycling Group announced it will no longer build a planned $300 million plastic and battery recycling plant in Erie. The company had previously been chosen for a $182 million loan from the Department of Energy, but under changes made by the Trump administration, that loan's status is now uncertain. Waste Dive reports that IRG is one of many companies to pull back on projects because of uncertain funding. In the wake of laws such as the Inflation Reduction Act, the DOE significantly increased its funding for green projects, including recycling plants. But upon taking office, Trump signaled his desire to end many rebates, credits, and funding for eco-friendly projects. IRG also cited other political factors, such as global tariffs, "resulting in expectations of substantially higher project development costs than anticipated." The Erie Times-News reports that the plant was expected to convert 160,000 tons of plastic each year into roughly 100,000 tons of recycled material. It was also supposed to create 300 jobs. CEO and founder of IRG Mitch Hecht said in a statement, according to Waste Dive: "I am personally devastated after 18 years of working to bring this vision to a reality that we have failed to overcome these challenges." Even before its cancellation, the plant had been in the middle of some controversy. The Sierra Club opposed the plant's construction, saying "plastics recycling does not exist in any meaningful form," and that it promoted the use of fossil fuels. Plastic is one of the planet's biggest pollutants, so finding ways to turn it into reusable, recyclable material could be beneficial. Studies have shown that only 9% or so of plastic is properly recycled. Instead, much of it ends up in our landfills and oceans. There are an estimated 170 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, and more than 48 million tons in landfills. Should plastic grocery bags be banned nationwide? Absolutely No way Let each state decide I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Not surprisingly, the effects of this pollution can be devastating. Research estimates that whales ingest up to 10 million pieces of microplastic each day, and plastic trash is carrying coastal species to new, unfamiliar parts of the ocean. Using less plastic in our everyday lives can help cut down on waste and pollution. As mentioned, funding for many rebates and credits within the IRA may be on the chopping block, although congressional approval would be required to do so. By acting quickly, individuals can still take advantage of many of those benefits to save significant money on various eco-friendly upgrades, such as purchasing an electric vehicle, installing solar panels, and buying a heat pump. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Chicago Tribune
07-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
NWI environmental groups praise cancellation of plastic waste facility
Plans to create a plastic waste facility have been canceled, and Northwest Indiana activists are pleased by the decision. Just Transition Northwest Indiana and Gary Advocates for Responsible Development were two organizations that praised an April 3 announcement from International Recycling Group that it's canceling its proposed plastic waste facility. International Recycling Group could not be reached for comment Monday. The proposed facility would have operated in Erie, Pennsylvania, and collected plastic waste from a 750-mile radius and turned waste into smaller plastic pieces to be burned in steel mills, according to a news release from Beyond Plastics. Activists believed U.S. Steel's Gary Works facility would have been included in the project, but the company was not specifically named in the project. In August, a spokesman for U.S. Steel told the Post-Tribune that any announcement of involvement would come from the company, but U.S. Steel never announced its involvement, according to the company's website. The steel company declined to comment on the project cancellation Monday. 'We are always seeking ways to improve the environment, increase our recycling efforts and reduce fossil fuel use,' said an August statement to the Post-Tribune. 'Opportunities are reviewed and vetted by our operations and environmental teams based on the safety, environmental and operational merits of any individual project.' Dorreen Carey, GARD president, said in a statement that she was pleased by the decision not to continue the project because of how it might impact Northwest Indiana. 'Burning plastic waste in the blast furnace would have emitted additional health harming toxic emissions to the already polluted air of Gary and surrounding Northwest Indiana communities,' Carey said. In 2019, four of Indiana's top 10 highest polluting industrial facilities were in Northwest Indiana, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Indiana led the nation in toxic pollution emitted per square mile. Susan Thomas, director of policy and press for Just Transition Northwest Indiana, said in a statement that the project was a false solution and greenwashing attempt. 'This project would have exacerbated toxic emissions in Northwest Indiana, harming regional health and the environment and furthering the 'sacrifice zone' status,' Thomas said. 'This is a stigma that industrial communities here are working mightily to counter. Just Transition Northwest Indiana is proud to be part of a unified multi-state, multi-organizational effort to stop this scheme and demand real solutions that uplift environmental justice.' In August, 106 environmental and community groups submitted a letter to former U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, asking her to withdraw a $182.6 million loan guarantee for the proposed plastic waste facility. Funding for the grant came from climate funding provided through the Inflation Reduction Act, according to Beyond Plastics.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Companies Building New Factories Brace for Higher Costs
Roofing-products manufacturer IKO North America has been on a factory-building spree in the U.S., with one plant completed and four more under construction. After President Trump launched a barrage of tariffs on U.S. trading partners, the math abruptly changed. Chief Executive David Koschitzky said IKO's just-finished factory in Texas now faces higher prices on the steel it uses to fabricate metal shingles, while the plants that are still being built need machinery that isn't made in the U.S. The company will continue with the projects, he said, but tariffs will make them much more expensive. Here's the iPhone. Here's the iPhone With Tariffs. The Panicked Voice on the Phone Sounded Like Her Daughter. It Wasn't. Americans Buy a Crazy Amount of Cheap Stuff. It's Costing Us Dearly. Elon Musk's Mr. Fix-It Takes Center Stage During a Really Bad Week 'Fewer Choices and Higher Prices': The Supply Chain of the Future 'If we're to be successful, that's a cost that's going to be passed on to the consumer,' Koschitzky said. Trump's tariff announcement threw a wrench into factory builders' plans—and complicates a yearslong government effort to reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing. Companies are double-checking the numbers on planned factories, or halting them altogether. Tariff-swollen building costs helped to kill a $300 million plastics recycling plant in Erie, Pa., that had been in the works for four years. International Recycling Group, helmed by CEO Mitch Hecht, said Thursday it was canceling the factory partly because new duties on material and imported machinery had created 'expectations of substantially higher project development costs than anticipated.' The company said the plant, which had been expected to generate 200 jobs, was also hampered by delays in securing a $182 million loan guarantee the federal government conditionally granted last year. The past three years have seen an explosion of U.S. factory investment, driven in part by billions of dollars in Biden administration subsidies for manufacturers supporting the semiconductor and electric-vehicle industries as well as renewable-energy projects. Companies have also sought to shorten supply chains that became strained during the Covid-19 pandemic. The momentum has persisted under Trump. The value of manufacturing-related construction, which hit a record $233 billion last year, continued to rise in the first two months of 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Administration officials maintain that persistent trade imbalances with other countries led to the deterioration of domestic manufacturing over recent decades, and that limiting U.S. reliance on imports will boost economic growth. Trump told reporters Thursday that it might take several years to achieve his goal of on-shoring manufacturing. 'They can build them fast, but they're still very big plants,' he said. 'I'd always say it'd take a year and a half to two years.' The administration envisions tariffs motivating companies to source more domestically produced goods, supporting an expanded U.S. manufacturing sector. But higher costs for imported materials and components could push up prices at home, industry professionals said. Earth Breeze, which makes detergent sheets for washing machines, is investing nearly $6 million in a Kentucky factory that will replace its Chinese contract manufacturer and create more than 200 U.S. jobs. Chief Operating Officer Ben Smith said the project will continue even though it now faces escalating costs, including a bill for imported machinery that tariffs could drive up by $250,000. 'We feel like we're actually contributing to the economy by on-shoring manufacturing, and there's now additional barriers to entry here,' he said. After Trump announced tariffs on steel and aluminum in February, construction firm Skanska estimated that the cost of metal panels, metal studs and structural steel would rise around 20% to 30% over the next year. Plumbing equipment prices could rise as much as 10% and drywall as much as 20%, alongside higher costs for electrical gear such as generators, HVAC equipment, roofing products and insulation. The new tariffs could add to the increases. Tom Park, who runs Skanska's supply-chain strategy, said that while some products compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be exempt from the latest tariffs, even equipment manufactured in the U.S. often relies on imported parts. An industrial chiller produced in a U.S. factory might contain wire from China, steel from Canada, pipes from India, harnesses and fan coils from Mexico, motors from Germany, copper from Peru and electronics from Korea—which could be subject to an array of tariffs, according to Skanska. 'These confrontational measures are inflationary across the board,' said José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers. 'It's a risky path. There's a chance we did all this, and we barely gained anything.' Before Trump's tariff expansion, contractors had been rushing to preorder materials and get ahead of cost increases for building projects, said Kevin Evernham, regional vice president for architecture firm Ware Malcomb. While it typically takes years to get a new project fully planned and approved, Ware Malcomb has been trying to speed things up. 'That is the new normal…schedules are not finalized, yet we're moving forward,' Evernham said. Evernham said that the higher costs could price some projects out of existence. For factories looking at a building cost of $100 to $200 a square foot, increasing roofing costs by $5 a square foot can be substantial, he said. Write to John Keilman at and Owen Tucker-Smith at Beef Is Expensive. Meatpackers Are Scraping Every Morsel From Bones. What Lies Ahead for the U.S. Economy? Brexit Offers Clues How BlackRock's Larry Fink Won Over Donald Trump Trump Put Labor Unions on a Pedestal. Not All Are Sold on His Tariff Plan. The Complicated Relationship Between Consumer Sentiment and Stocks
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Timeline of IRG's plans for $300M Erie facility, how close did it get to happening?
It was supposed to be one of the world's largest recycling facilities right here in Erie but now it's still an empty lot. Friday we went back to the beginning to try to find out just how close IRG's project was to becoming a reality before the company's abrupt exit. After going through many documents it seems there are still many unanswered questions from IRG. International Recycling Group is no longer bringing a plastics recycling plant to the region. IRG cancels plans for $300 million Erie recycling facility This announcement coming Thursday afternoon with IRG citing a pause on federal funds and uncertainty surrounding tariffs. This project has now been in the works for over five years. According to a recycling publication Plastics Recycling Update, IRG announced that the $100 million plant was coming here in 2020 and scheduled to start up in 2022. A year and a half later, the project increased its price by $50 million. At that time founder and chairman Mitch Hecht said that if they could close on financing by the end of 2021, the company could break ground during the first quarter of 2022 with commissioning expected in mid-2023. 'It's a loss for the community' ERCGP CEO speaks on canceled Erie recycling facility plans By this time, IRG had a mix of funds from key contributors Erie Insurance and the Plastek Group who are now both very disappointed with the current situation. Matthew Cummings from Erie Insurance said they've always recognized that their investing carried an inherently high level of risk, but it was also an investment in a promising local economic development. In March of 2022 when they were supposed to break ground, the cost went up yet again to $185 million. That's also when they closed on this East Lake Road property. Among other investments, IRG received a $300,000 loan from the Erie County Redevelopment Authority, a $5 million RACP grant, $182 million from a federal EPA loan and a $509,000 rail freight assistance program grant. The last we heard from IRG was in July of last year when the updated plan was to break ground in early 2025. This brings us to Thursday when IRG canceled their now $300 million project. 'I never saw one stitch of paperwork from that company and I mean that did give me a lot of pause,' said Brenton Davis, Erie County executive. 'You can't count on things until they actually happen. We've been sold a lot of false promises we can't dwell on that.' What we still don't know is what the company plans to do with the property or the money received by investors. Erie middle schoolers pitch their projects for Project Ice House We reached out to the company's spokesperson and they referred us to Thursday's statement. We'll keep trying. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘It's a loss for the community' ERCGP CEO speaks on canceled Erie recycling facility plans
The International Recycling Group (IRG) announced Thursday that plans for their $300 million plastic recycling plant have been canceled. IRG purchased property on East Lake Road back in 2022 with plans to build a recycling facility and now the company is scrapping those plans due to financial challenges. The International Recycling Group has canceled its plans to build a plastics recycling plant on East Lake Road, citing several difficulties in financing the $300 million project. An announcement from IRG Thursday morning cited that a funding hold issued by the U.S. Department of Energy and the expectation of tariffs increasing development costs are among the reasons for cancellation. IRG cancels plans for $300 million Erie recycling facility The CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership (ERCGP) said the project is a significant loss for the Erie region. 'It's a loss for the community and we're obviously frustrated with it, but it's also very important to realize that the Erie region right now has a lot of momentum, and while this slows some of it, we still have plenty of other projects and business investment,' said Brandon Mendoza, CEO of the ERCGP. The scrapped project was funded by both local and state-level investments and was set to receive a $192 million loan from the Environmental Protection Agency. Mendoza said the partnership is working to secure $5 million given to IRG from the Redevelopment Capital Assistance Program for use in other investments. New International Recycling plant aims to combat climate change in Erie We visited what would've been the site for the IRG recycling plant on East Lake Road, which would have brought a lot of jobs, people coming to work at this site here, but now the future is uncertain for this property. 'This was very high-level, advanced manufacturing, and it was definitely a longer-term investment that would've brought a lot of jobs. But really, it would've also helped out our plastic manufacturing sector here,' Mendoza said. A statement from IRG's CEO Mitch Hecht said 'We brought the IRG project to Erie with the intention of creating high-paying, family-sustaining jobs.' Two major Erie projects set to receive combined $8 million He went on to say 'I am personally devastated after 18 years of working to bring this vision to a reality that we have failed to overcome these challenges.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
