Nonmetallics

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David E. Hess has announced the availability of $250,000 in grant funding for the operation of scrap tire collection programs throughout the state.

The grants are available to counties, local municipalities and nonprofit organizations that sponsor approved scrap tire collection programs and that have not contributed to the creation of illegal tire piles.

"An estimated 12 million waste tires are generated each year in Pennsylvania," Hess says. "We hope this grant program will serve as an incentive to reuse and recycle waste tires and keep them from littering the landscape."

Grants may be used to cover collection, transportation and management costs associated with approved tire-collection programs. The tire-collection program may accept a maximum of 12 tires from one source. Collected tires must be reused, recycled or recovered.

Grants may not be used for the purchase of equipment or the clean up of existing tire piles. Eligible tire-collection programs must be held before June 30, 2003.

Total reimbursement costs are limited to a figure obtained by using a formula based on 2000 census figures and the number of tires collected.

For registration forms, visit the PA PowerPort at www.state.pa.us., keyword: "waste tires."

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency are sponsoring a two-year, $150,000 study to determine if tire shreds can be used as lightweight fill for construction projects below the water table.

The study will provide data on the environmental impact of using tire shreds below the water table in a roadway and will test laboratory methods to see if they can mimic field conditions.

The study began with help from Dr. David Belluck, a research scientist with the Minnesota DOT. Belluck saw promise in expanding the use of scrap tires.

The study differs from past research because the lab model will be tied back to a real construction site, Stephen David, environmental consultant with HDR Engineering, Golden Valley, Min., says.

"As we begin to learn more about the process," David says, "we may try to implement some changes to accurately reflect what’s happening in the field."

The field study will occur on a quarter mile stretch of road in Oak Grove, Minn. The road has been rebuilt and is complete except for the top layer of pavement to be laid in the spring.

Monitoring wells at the site will be constructed this spring to collect water samples during the next two years.

First State Tire Recycling (FSTR), the makers of R.-T.E.A. (Recycled-Tire Engineered Aggregate) collaborated with the state to supply the tire shreds for the study. Monte Niemi, FSTR president, waved the patent royalties on the construction project, helping to keep costs down.

The water table study is one of the largest tire shred installations FSTR has ever done, using more than 750,000 tires. A total of 566 truck loads delivered 22,640 compacted yards of tire shreds to the site.

GreenMan Technologies Inc., Lynnfield, Mass., has announced its intention to open a new high-volume tire processing plant in LaVergne, Tenn., southeast of Nashville.

GreenMan Technologies of Tennessee Inc., a new wholly-owned subsidiary, will operate the plant, which is expected to begin operations in April 2003.

Tom Carter, GreenMan’s southern regional vice president, says, "We have worked diligently over the last two years to double our Tennessee-sourced scrap tire base to an annualized volume of over 4 million passenger tire equivalents and are now at a point where our Tennessee scrap tire volumes justify the capital commitment necessary to establish a high-volume tire processing facility."

GreenMan also plans to install its fourth waste wire processing line at the plant to maximize its performance and meet market demand.

Previously, tires sourced in Tennessee were shipped to GreenMan’s Georgia plant for processing, resulting in transportation costs in excess of $65,000 during some months, GreenMan CEO Bob Davis says.

ITec Environmental Systems, a division of ITec Environmental Group has signed a lease for a 6,900 square foot building in Oakdale, Calif. ITec corporate offices have relocated to the plant.

"ITecES’s new facility will provide us with the right location and operations to showcase our technology," Gary DeLaurentiis, president of ITec, says. "California will serve as a model for other states considering the processing of oil contaminated plastics.

"ITecRS will demonstrate how to effectively handle collections under the Motor Oil Container Recycling project, starting with the containers we’ve assembled over the course of the past six months," DeLaurentiis says.

ITec Recycling Services (ITecRS) sells ITec’s granulators for used motor oil bottle recycling programs and transportation services of 55-gallon drums of ground used motor oil bottles to ITec Plastics (ITecP) recycling facilities. ITecRS has implemented similar programs in Europe.

ITecP will create throughout the U.S. to recycle post-consumer High-Density Polyethylene and Polyethylene Terephthalate plastics using the ECO2™ Environmental System and sell clean extruded pellets.

Owens-Illinois Inc. (O-I), headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, has announced that as part of a new expanded contract with Anheuser- Busch Inc., it will build a new glass container manufacturing plant to be the primary supplier to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fort Collins, Colo.

The location of the plant has yet to be determined, though it will be in either Northeast Colorado or Southeast Wyoming. The plant is expected to start production in early 2005, manufacturing 12-ounce bottles. Upon reaching full capacity, the plant will be among the highest output glass container plants in the United States, producing more than 1 billion bottles a year.

Owens-Illinois is the largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Australia and New Zealand and one of the largest in Europe. O-I has 25 glass container manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada and a total of 68 worldwide.