If you've noticed that the blue bins dotted around town to collect plastic bottles and other plastics for recycling have disappeared, Erie News Now did too.

We've learned that the pause on the NewBin plastics collection effort is linked to the status of funding for International Recycling Group, and its planned recycling plant project on former Hammermill property on Erie's east side.

We've followed International Recycling Group's plastic recycling plant vision for years.  That vision, is creation of a new plastics sorting and recycling facility that company officials claim will keep every kind of plastic out of landfills and return it to the economy as products, including a material for use in steel production.

IRG founder and CEO Mitch Hecht couldn't have been more excited in July of 2024, when he learned that a $182.6-million loan guarantee to support the project was coming through under then President Joe Biden's Infrastructure and Jobs Act and the Green New Deal.

At that time Hecht said, "It will be the first of its kind in the country. It will be one of the the largest plants in the country and it will really, as I said, put Erie on the map for being a leader nationally in sustainability -- in how to handle the plastics pollution, plastics waste problem."

The funding is part of nearly $47-billion in loan guarantees thrown into question by President Trump's Unleashing American Energy executive order issued January 20th, and a subsequent memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget, which immediately paused disbursement of funds.

It will now be up to a review from OMB and the Department of Energy to determine if the loan funding for the Erie based project should still go forward.

Since NewBin was collecting plastics in anticipation of the planned recycling facility, the waiting game on the loan is impacting their funding too.

So the blue bins have been pulled, with NewBin putting a statement on its website saying, "Due to uncertainty related to continued support by the federal government, we have had to put all collection activities on hold for the time-being."

Erie News Now reached out to Mitch Hecht, who was unable to comment while the status of the loan is still a matter for negotiation.  We also reached out to the office of Congressman Mike Kelly to see if he had any status information on the future of the loan guarantee.  The congressman was not prepared to offer any comment at this time.

A source close to the project would only say that IRG is still in the process of raising private funding, and seeking strategic partners for the $300-million project.  IRG officials have stated in the past that they're working to create a clean plastic recycling model that will also create new jobs for the Erie region.

Local environmentalists have raised concerns about the plans from the beginning.  They are now wondering what is being done with all of the plastics already collected. Erie News Now doesn't have an answer to that question as yet, but will continue to follow developments on this story.