'Akron earned this one': Polymer industry partners land $51 million in federal funds

Akron’s Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub is receiving $51 million in federal funds to expand, which supporters say will create or retain more than 4,000 jobs, as well as boost training, vocational, college and university education opportunities.

Last year, Akron's Polymer Industry Cluster was designated as one of 30 hubs — and the nation's only Sustainable Polymers Tech Hub — from a pool of 500 applicants.

Now, it’s one of 12 tech hubs that will receive funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).

Projects using the funding will launch in October .

U.S. Rep Emilia Sykes, D-Akron, told the Beacon that the expansion of the polymer industry creates “the ability to provide opportunity right at home.”

“And one of the things that I hear from people a lot — and have heard over my tenure as an elected official — is that people want their children to grow up in their communities where they went to high school,” Sykes said. “They want to see their grandchildren in the same communities so that they don't have to worry about traveling across the country or the world to see them because they've chased opportunities.”

“Akron earned this one,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, told the Beacon Journal, adding that “the chamber of commerce, the organized labor, local government, Akron U. came together.”

The EDA investment will help Greater Akron “lead in developing and producing the next generation of rubber and plastics,” according to a news release from Brown’s office.

Akron’s Polymer Industry Cluster includes multiple partners, including many that directly requested funding from EDA, according to a March news release from the Polymer Industry Cluster at the Greater Akron Chamber.

Project leads directly requested and will receive funding from EDA for seven projects — five focused on technology maturation, one on workforce development and another on governance, said Brian Anderson, vice president of the cluster at the Greater Akron Chamber.

Project leads include the chamber, the University of Akron, Goodyear, Huntsman Corporation, Bioverde Tech LLC, Full Circle Technologies and Flexsys, he said.

“Polymers are in everything.” Anderson said. “It's a platform technology that enables industries from semiconductors to electric vehicles to health care — all of these industries that rely on high-performance materials and that will benefit from sustainable solutions. This Tech Hub award is recognition that this is the place to be in the country for innovation of these kinds of materials.”

EDA-funded projects will be matched by about $7 million of partner funds and could potentially bring in more than $1 billion in additional private investment, Anderson said.

The Polymer Industry Cluster is working to move the industry away from traditional polymers and into more sustainable synthetic polymers. Anderson said the EDA funding and investment matches could help funded projects reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.9 million tons annually.

“And there's no place more suited to do that, in my mind, than Akron,” Brown said. “And we now finally, in this country, have an industrial policy where the government works in cooperation to invest in manufacturing.”

Sykes also touched on the importance of sustainability in the polymer space.

“We're always trying to figure out how to get the plastics out of our environment — our waterways, in particular, and the sea and our oceans, and coming up with a solution to that issue, and [that] it's happening right here in this community is significant,” Sykes said.

Sykes said one of the reasons she chose to serve on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology was to advocate for Ohio’s 13th District to benefit from the CHIPS and Science Act that became law shortly before the start of her term in January 2023.

“And, so, I'm grateful that I made that decision,” Sykes said. “I think it's been paying off for the district and been a very important part of my tenure in this year and a half in Congress."

Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: 'Akron earned this one': Polymer industry partners land $51 million in federal funds