By LEWIS SPEARMAN
SHELDON The largest tire recyclers in the world are going to build a multimillion dollar tire recycling facility just on the other side of the San Jacinto River from Crosby on the Beaumont Highway, almost across the street from the old Champion/Abitibi paper mill.
A scramble for the legal rights has been hurtled with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) in spite of apparently groundless claims against one of Viborg, Denmarks most green companies, according to Butch Battreall in an interview at Crosbys Starbucks on March 30.
The final evaluation of the TCEQ was the Genan had to complete the application process by placing announcements. Battreall concluded those processes for the company.
Now it will take until September until the facility can be looked for but associated companies are purchasing land to begin working ancillary Genan, Knowledge-based Recycling Concepts.
Thomas Becker, C.E.O. of Genan, indicates that while 34 to 36 technically trained people may be hired to operate the fully mechanized facility some 60 more may be hired by the transporting company that haul the tires.
Harris County has a crisis in tire recycling and anyone that has paid a tire recycling fee of late has become aware of it. The old school method of recycling, co-incinerating in kilns to recapture energy is now seen as a waste of high quality raw materials. Recycling would be the best solution from an environmental point of view and economically provided the recycled product is uniform and clean enough for the recycled rubber and steel to replace virgin materials. The Genan Company has started a worldwide initiative to recycle 10% of all scrap tires. The process sorts 67% of the tire into rubber powder and granulate, 18% into high quality steel and 14% into textile and a maximum of 1% waste, which primarily stems from road debris.
Essentially, the Genan process brings in the tires completely wrapped into a facility that houses a floor that shreds the tires into basic ingredients to be made into 25% infill for artificial turf and 75% production of rubber modified bitumen for asphalt. The processes that the raw tires go through are shredding, cleaning and separation. This is done as a human monitor sits outside a production floor that is capable of dumping all the materials into a vast water reserve if anything catches fire, such that the fire would be instantly smothered under the water.
New developments are constantly being invented for the rubber granulate that is produced from this shredding process. Some of the materials are being used as noise and heat insulation in building materials, technical rubber compounds are being produced for the new wave of computers and other highly technical products. Highway uses include rubber mats and traffic cones. Plans are underway to produce a new paint that will be useful on exteriors and interior surfaces. Products for flooring are now being designed from rubber granulate.
The latest development in the world of tire recycling is that Genan is rumored to be working with the Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. on a venture to refine the recycled rubber powder so fine as to make new and improved tires. The giant aside benefit is that this production would substantially reduce production of carbon dioxide emissions in the production of the new tires.
Genan operates three tire recycling plants in Germany, one in Denmark. Combined the company has an annual processng capacity of 275,000 metric tons and is currently doing 70,000 tones per year.
Their stated mission is,True recycling requires processing at a level where the output substitures for virgin materials. This leads to avoided production and profound saving of resources.
The company aspires to recycling 10% of all tires by the year 2018.
Their stated vision is to recycle in the most environmentally friendly and economic way.
