The Oil Daily, April 15, 1992 n9969 p1(1) 
                Old tires-to-oil recycling program launched in Texas. (Brief 
                Article) Tom Stewart-Gordon. 
            Full Text: COPYRIGHT The Oil Daily 1992 
            HOUSTON -- Those tire mountains which threaten to burst their fences 
            along Texas highways may begin to erode into useful products thanks 
            to a recent state law. However, the Texas Water Commission, which 
            took over administration of the program on March 1, has a number of 
            issues to iron out before it is fully operational. Effective April 
            1, Texas began paying 85 cents a tire to recyclers, provided 25 
            percent of their feedstock came from unauthorized dumps and the 
            tires are ripped into pieces no bigger than 3 inches by 3 inches. 
            The money is coming from a $2.00 a tire levy on every new and 
            recapped tire purchased in the state. The fee has been in effect 
            since Jan. 1 and is expected to generate up to $40 million a year. 
            The reason for the disparity between what is charged new tire buyers 
            and what is paid old tire recyclers is that most of the 200 to 300 
            million old tires in the state were replaced before the levy was in 
            place. 
            Currently only one company has been approved for the 85 cent 
            incentive, although a large shredder is planned for Cleveland, 
            Texas. Waste Recovery, Dallas, has a plant in Baytown which can 
            reduce up to eight million tires a year into a sort of coalburner 
            helper. Tires are shredded and the rubber bits are sold to coal 
            burners, primarily paper and pulp companies, as a fuel supplement. 
            Last year the Baytown plant processed almost three-quarters of a 
            million tires. The facility is not profitable, although Waste 
            Recovery's units in Portland, Ore., and Atlanta are. 
            Other companies are hoping the new levy will be enough to tip them 
            into investor favor and get them running. 
            Global Tire Recycling, Houston, wants to return tires to their 
            constituent parts. The company's president, Peter Pratt, hopes to 
            buy a $4.5 million machine which will not only shred up to 60 tons 
            of tires a day, but also turn them into 150 barrels of oil, 15 tons 
            of carbon black, more than enough methane to run the plant and steel 
            balls. 
            The idea of converting tires back into oil has been around at least 
            since the oil scare of the 1970s, but has never been commercial. 
             
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