Nonmetallics

GLASS

ECOGLASS SECURES LG PHILIPS CONTRACT

Ecoglass Recycling Inc., Lakewood, N.J., has entered into an agreement with LG Philips to ship recovered monitor glass to the company.

LG Philips is a Hong Kong-based maker of cathode ray tubes (CRTs) used in televisions and monitors.

In May, Ecoglass sent more than 2 million pounds of recovered CRT glass to LG Phillips, and the company has subsequently asked Ecoglass to ship as much of the product as it can generate. The agreement has prompted Ecoglass to consider expanding its plant.

PASADENA BUSINESSES BEGIN RECYCLING GLASS

The city of Pasadena, Calif., in cooperation with the California Department of Conservation, the Glass Packaging Institute and recycler Allan Co., has implemented an 18-month glass recycling pilot program, according to a report in the Pasadena Star-News (Pasadena, Calif.).

About 12 restaurants and bars have joined the program since it began in April, according to the report.

The Allan Co., based in Baldwin Park, Calif., provides containers for the businesses to store used glass products, which it collects regularly.

A $284,000 grant from the California Department of Conservation funds the program.

TIRES

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS AGAINST TIRE BURNING AT CEMEX

Two environmental groups have come out against a plan to use scrap tires to fuel a cement plant in Dayton, Ohio.

According to a report in the Dayton Daily News, the Greene Environmental Coalition and Parents Against Tire Burning are against the use of tire-derived fuel at the Cemex cement plant in Dayton because they say the fumes produced are toxic.

Cemex, which is based in Houston, says that tire-derived fuel will reduce the use of coal at the plant by 20 percent, saving $1 million annually, the Daily News reports.

Mike Blumenthal, senior technical director for the Rubber Manufacturers Association, Washington, tells the paper: "If it weren’t for the tire-derived fuel, this country would indeed have a scrap tire crisis. Tire-derived fuel is not the only market out there, but it is the biggest market. It is an important market."

MICHIGAN AWARDS GRANTS

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has issued roughly $127,000 for two projects in the state that address end use and market development for scrap tires.

The grants are designed to further the DEQ’s efforts to eliminate scrap tire piles by promoting innovative reuses of scrap tires.

Viking Energy of McBain, Mich., has received a $126,000 end-user grant to use tire-derived fuel in its processes, and the Saginaw County Road Commission has received a $1,150 market development grant to study rubber-modified asphalt.

The grants announced are in addition to 35 grants totaling $3.9 million that were awarded in January 2006 to clean up scrap tire sites throughout the state.

GREENMAN SELLS CALIFORNIA SUBSIDIARY

GreenMan Technologies, based in Lynnfield, Mass., has announced the sale of its ownership rights in GreenMan Technologies of California Inc.

Vern Mabry bought the company using a stock purchase agreement in mid-July. Mabry was the majority owner of Azusa, Calif.-based Unlimited Tire Technologies, which became GreenMan Technologies of California in 2002 when GreenMan acquired all of the company’s outstanding common stock.

"While we would have preferred to maintain a presence in the California tire recycling market, our California subsidiary’s performance had not met expectations, and therefore we felt it was in the company’s best interest to divest the subsidiary," Lyle Jensen, GreenMan’s president and CEO, says. "We can now focus our efforts on maximizing performance of our core Midwestern operations in order to realize their full potential."

GreenMan has also announced the completion of a new three-year, $16 million credit facility with Laurus Master Fund Ltd., based in the Cayman Islands.

Read Next

Ready to Roll?

September 2006
Explore the September 2006 Issue

Check out more from this issue and find you next story to read.