Ecore receives funding in Alabama

The UB Community Development LLC (UBCD) community development subsidiary of Altmore, Alabama-based United Bancorporation of Alabama (United Bank) will provide a $10 million Federal New Markets Tax Credit allocation to Ecore International Inc.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Ecore is repurposing and equipping a 225,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ozark, Alabama, to recycle end-of-life truck tires to make flooring and surfacing products from the reclaimed rubber.

“We appreciate UBCD’s mission to invest in communities because, like UBCD, we believe when our people and our communities prosper, we prosper,” Ecore CEO Art Dodge says. “We are pleased to be establishing this world-class manufacturing and recycling facility in Ozark, Alabama.”

Ecore products to be manufactured in Ozark include “high-performance” surfaces such as fitness, sports, recreation and commercial flooring, playgrounds, athletic fields and insulation products.

The company says its planned Ozark location will source used truck tires from collection points throughout the surrounding region.

“In 2018, Jeld Wen Windows and Doors of Ozark closed their plant laying off 80 employees,” says Alex Jones, president of UBCD, regarding the facility being renovated by Ecore. “Flash forward five years and Ecore is hiring 75 employees to repurpose the shuttered facility. During our site visit, we met employees that had worked at the facility in its prior life. To play a part in reopening a facility and bringing members of the community back to work is core to our mission.”

Scrap material from Ecore's manufacturing process is collected and recycled back into the system because rubber can be continually recycled and does not degrade through the recycling process.