International Recycling Group cancelled plans for a $300 million project to recycle plastic that would then have been burned in the blast furnaces of a Northwest Indiana steel mill.
The company previously announced it had secured an agreement with a steel mill to buy its CleanRed product and that it would be the first U.S. company to produce and sell a plastic waste product domestic steelmakers could use to reduce the amount of carbon-emitting coke they burned in their blast furnaces. The company projected its product would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 500,000 tons or 24% a year while also using 50% less energy.
It expected that the Erie, Pennsylvania plant would create 221 new operations jobs in western Pennsylvania and Northwest Indiana.
Northwest Indiana environmentalists had planned to mount a campaign against the project, which they feared would have worsened air pollution in the Calumet Region. Dorreen Carey with Gary Advocates for Responsible Development said burning plastic waste in blast furnaces would have resulted in more toxic emissions in already polluted air, threatening public health.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy pledged a $182.6 million conditional loan guarantee for the project as part of broader efforts to reduce the carbon emissions scientists say cause climate change.
International Recycling Group called off the project last week after the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office put an indefinite hold on funding, which threw off its plans to raise $300 million in capital. It also blamed tariffs for driving up the project's costs and difficulties in getting long-term purchase agreements from plastic and consumer product manufacturers that have been cutting back on sustainability pledges as of late.
The project aimed to recycle about 160,000 tons of plastic into 100,000 tons of recycled plastic, including 20,000 tons of CleanRed to lower the carbon emissions of steel mills. Steel mills in Europe and Asia have used the technology for decades to reduce the amount of coal they burn in blast furnaces to make the iron that becomes the steel used in cars, appliances and many other end products.
More than 100 environmental groups have spoken out against the project, which Beyond Plastics Appalachia Director Jess Conrad described as "a polluting project masquerading as a quick fix to the plastic waste crisis."
Local environmental groups criticized the project as a green initiative that wasn't actually all that green when subjected to scrutiny.
“Trucking plastics across the country to burn in blast furnaces under the guise of ‘recycling’ was and will always be a complete false solution and greenwashing attempt. No existing EPA data for toxic emissions standards from this dubious and unscientific process exists," said Susan Thomas, director of policy and press at Just Transition Northwest Indiana. "This project would have exacerbated toxic emissions in Northwest Indiana, harming regional health and the environment and furthering the ‘sacrifice zone’ status. This is a stigma that industrial communities here are working mightily to counter."
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