Bolder Industries breaks ground on Missouri plant expansion

Boulder, Colorado-based Bolder Industries has broken ground on a manufacturing plant expansion project in Maryville, Missouri, to increase its output of recycled-content BolderBlack carbon black alternative.

“This expansion will increase our capacity nearly three times our current capability in each of our product lines,” says CEO Tony Wibbeler. “It also demonstrates our ability to bring this solution to scale at predictable pricing. We are currently on time and on budget with more than 85 percent of the costs contracted or purchased for what is essentially a second facility.”

The Bolder Industries  Maryville expansion will add 17,000 square feet to the existing footprint and create local, advanced manufacturing jobs in the near future, adds the firm.

The company describes BolderBlack as “a more sustainable and less expensive alternative to traditional carbon black. The net effect of the process is an approximately 90 percent reduction of environmental impact across the board when considering greenhouse gas emissions, electricity, and water usage, and at a lower price.”

Bolder Industries says its manufacturing process offers petroleum-based products another life. It extracts resources from scrap tires and creates “sustainable alternatives to carbon black and oil,” says the firm.

“When innovative companies like Bolder Industries put down roots in Maryville, they bolster our city’s reputation as a center of excellence and create desirable jobs for our workforce,” says Maryville City Manager Greg McDanel.

BolderBlack has made its way into more than 300 products, including tires, construction materials and waste containers, says the firm.

One of its customers, Ginger Glidewell of Ripley, Mississippi-based Elite Elastomers Inc., says of Bolder Industries, “Adding Bolder Industries’ expertise to ours so we could successfully compound a consistent product using BolderBlack rCB [recycled carbon black] was the gateway customers were looking for. We’re excited to see Bolder Industries and their BolderBlack moving forward and reaching growth goals. As a result, Elite Elastomers is able to check our own sustainability ‘boxes’ and provide that platform for customers.”

Bolder Industries Chief Technology Officer Nate Murphy remarks, “We have been able to prove our uptime, quality, consistency, operational costs, and sales of all products over the past 18 months at full commercial scale. What has been a critical step for us is to have a clear definition around our charter product, BolderBlack. Customers can reliably use BolderBlack rCB in their formulas.”

States CEO Wibbeler, “Demand for custom formulas has been increasing. We expected that things would level-off during COVID-19. Instead, the casualness and quick connectivity of video chat meetings have accelerated conversations with brands looking to innovate and tell a new story. The new story focuses on responsible resources. The new dialog isn’t about ‘eco’ and ‘sustainable’ as much as it is about the thoughtful use of what we’ve rediscovered as the resourceful use of the materials we already have.”