A Good Year for Tire Recycling

Jim Rosenbaum remembers when he couldn’t impress anyone with the ideas he had for old tires.

He had made planters, birdbaths and volleyball standards, the usual stuff. But a few years ago, Rosenbaum cooked up a board--as hard and more durable than wood--from bits of tires and other plastic waste.

“Now I can make something out of old tires and people get excited,” Rosenbaum said. “It starts out as waste and becomes a usable product and definitely saves a lot of trees.”

He moved from his Oklahoma ranch last spring and, with the help of some tax incentives, took over an empty manufacturing plant in Muenster, a tiny town 50 miles from Dallas known for its German restaurants.

Since then, his Renewed Materials Industries Inc. has sold a few million dollars’ worth of ReCyc Lumber.

Boxes of shredded tires, shampoo bottles and milk jugs are stacked to the ceiling and feed two production lines at the plant. There is little odor and virtually no waste.

RMI’s customers so far have been farmers and ranchers who are resurfacing their animal trailers. But the company’s distributors also tout ReCyc Lumber’s use for barn flooring, patio or marina decking, anyplace where durability and rotting is a problem. ReCyc Lumber costs slightly more than most woods but less than fine woods like oak. A typical 16-foot animal trailer can be re-floored for about $250.

An estimated 250 million tires are discarded annually in the United States. “We don’t even scratch the surface with what we use,” Rosenbaum said.