Rubber Recycle™ in the News

Rubberecycle Makes Playgrounds Safer

When Rubberecycle opened its doors nearly eighteen months ago, it already had the tire contract for Ocean County, NJ in hand and an eager parks and recreation department ready to install the company's signature product - Playsafer™ - a crumb rubber surfacing material for use on playgrounds and recreation areas.

In fact, Rubberecycle has been a part of the county's solid waste management plan since March 1997, Ocean County Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said.

For Rubberecycle President Robert Gestetner and Corporate Executive Officer Morris Hassan getting on board with the county was one component of a strategic planning effort that spanned more than five years. "We did our homework and then some," Morris Hassan said.

Not only did the pair research the recycled rubber products market throughout North America, Europe and the Far East, they hunted down equipment and tested various technologies and shopped location before settling on their present 45,000 sq.ft. facility in Lakewood, NJ.

"One of our first goals was to produce a product that would contribute to reducing both the number and severity of children's playground injuries," Hassan said.

To accomplish that goal, Hassan and Gestetner put together a system to manufacture a high quality protective rubber surfacing product that would meet or exceed the shock absorbing levels set forth by the Consumer Products Safety Commission and other national testing agencies and be affordable too.

The system at Rubberecycle consists of a two-stage ambient processing operation followed by a cryogenic system and a hammermill for final granulation to 100 mesh size.

Tires and tire material entering the plant is first shred using a Columbus McKinnon primary shredder with recirculation capability to produce 2-inch chips which are the feedstock for downstream processing. The chips are routed to the secondary processing unit - Granutech-Saturn Systems Grizzly Grinder. The Grizzly, using a single-rotor configuration, takes the 2-inch material and effectively downsizes it to the 1/2" - 5/8" sizes Rubberecycle requires for its Playsaferª line and Equestrian products.

"One of the key benefits of the Grizzly for our operation," Hassan said, "is its ability to liberate steel from rubber. " Getting the majority of the steel out early in our processing operation is a significant cost savings and a key step in our quality control system," Hassan said. "We guarantee our final product is 99.9 percent free of metal--the equipment we use is a big part of meeting the guarantee, " he said. In addition to the Grizzly, the Rubberecycle system has magnetic separation units throughout which include four Rare Earth magnets and two belt magnets.

In Rubberecycle's fine grind processing division size-reduced crumb rubber (1/2" - 5/8" depending on screen size) is introduced into a cryogenic system designed and engineered by GC Engineering, Colona, British Columbia. In the process the crumb rubber enters a specially designed cryogenic chamber and is cooled to embrittlement. Final granulation takes place in cryo-grinding hammermills manufactured by Pulva Corp., Saxonburg, Pa which reduce the frozen particles to 80 mesh and 100 mesh sizes.

The company currently processes between 5,000 and 7,000 tires a day and is designed to handle 2 million scrap tires annually as demand increases for Rubberecycle's products and recycled rubber materials.

"The Playsafer™ product has really taken off," Hassan said. And while he credits some of this market growth to the company's direct mailing and advertising campaigns, most comes from "word-of-mouth", he said.

Last March, Ocean County installed a six-inch deep mulch bed of Playsafer™ under the play equipment at the Shenandoah Fields Sports complex.

To launch the installation (Rubberecycle's first in the state), county officials did the egg test - climbing atop a 14 ft. high piece of play equipment to drop an egg on the 6-inch cushion of Playsafer™. The egg bounced (and didn't break) catching the attention of a local TV reporter who repeated the test for Ocean County viewers in turn catching the attention of CNN.

"We got instant publicity but over the months the majority of our sales have come from visitors to the park who get to see and experience Playsafer'sª benefits first hand," Joshua L. Hill, Rubberecycle's director of sales said. The newest market to develop from this is homeowner sales, he said.

"Once people visit the park and their children play on the rubber surfacing -- they want it," Hill said. "It's a safety cushion that can protect their children."

Another New Jersey community, Fair Lawn in Bergen County, spent $43,375 last year to resurface 12 playgrounds with recycled rubber. Playsaferª was used on eight of the playgrounds, Fair Lawn's superintendent of recreation said.

Along with Playsafer™, Rubberecycle has spent its first year of operation developing its second product line --Surefoot™--an equestrian arena protective footing. Surefootª is a 3/8" size particle which can be used independently, blended with sand or readily combined with other surface materials, Hassan said. The company works with equestrian arena builders to promote the product and also advertises in trade magazines and displays at industry shows.

"We have several installations at arenas in New Jersey and, like the playground market, a lot of our arena sales are now coming by word of mouth," Hassan said.

With the company's two flagship products on firm ground, Hassan and Gestetner are doing additional research in their fine grind division. "Our goal is two-fold -- to make and sell a high quality line of fine grind crumb rubber and develop a rubber products manufacturing division," Hassan said.

"Right now we're researching different molding technologies and equipment and testing some alternative binders, like scrap plastics, to replace the more expensive polyurethanes, " he said.

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