By: Vera Fedchenko Tire Business staff

Category: News
Issue Date: 05-25-98
Page: 15

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--A $1.2 million tire recycling facility with the capacity to process 600,000 scrap tires annually opened May 1 in San Leandro. The 2,700-sq.-ft. plant, Northern California's first crumb rubber factory, is a joint venture between Bay Area Tire Recycling and Waste Management of Alameda County Inc., located south of Oakland, according to a Waste Management spokesman. BATR equipped the unit and will operate it, while Waste Management owns the property and the building, the spokesman said. 

The facility has an automated shredding, grinding and screening system that will convert whole tires and tire chips into steel- and nylon-free rubber products, the spokesman said. The products will range in size from three-quarters of an inch to #40 mesh rubber powder. 

The plant will serve a growing market in Northern California where more than 150 manufacturers of rubber products are located, he said. The venture between Waste Management and BATR plans to serve different markets including playgrounds, asphalt, soil amendment, athletic surfaces, fence posts, roofing materials and leachate material, said BATR President Larry Barnblatt. 

"We are excited to demonstrate how tires can be recycled profitably so California can move away from its current reliance on burning or burying tires for disposal,'' he said. "We're not concentrating on one market.'' 

Because no other crumb rubber producers were located in Northern California, the new plant may increase asphalt rubber production, according to John Serumgard, chairman of the Scrap Tire Management Council. The facility receives scrap tires from area cities, dealers and retreaders. 

Depending on demand for crumb rubber, BATR and Waste Management hope to open more plants across the U.S. to process scrap tires, Mr. Barnblatt said. He declined to project how much sales the San Leandro factory will generate.