The developer of a proposed $300 million recycling plant in Pennsylvania says Trump-imposed tariffs helped kill the project.
Eric Heyl, Patch Staff
ERIE, PA — Plans for a new $300 million plastics recycling plant here have been canceled, with the financial uncertainties caused by President Donald Trump’s recent imposition of global tariffs cited as a significant reason for the project’s death.
Erie-based International Recycling Group was to build the plant on a 25-acre site that formerly housed a paper mill. The Erie Times-News reported the facility would have created 300 jobs and produced about 100,000 tons of recycled plastic materials annually.
But IRG had yet to receive a $182 million Department of Energy loan approved last summer by the Biden administration that the company needed to finalize fundraising for the plant. The Trump administration had put an indefinite hold on the funding commitment.
In a statement provided Thursday to the Times-News, IRG officials said “Additional challenged include recently announced tariffs on materials and on equipment from Europe not made in the U.S., resulting in expectations of substantially high project development costs than anticipated, as well as difficulties in securing long-term purchase agreements for recycled materials from plastics manufacturers and consumer product groups, many of whom are cutting back on sustainability pledges.”
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