Rubber Recycler Closing Line

U.S. Rubber Recycling Inc. Riverside, Calif., announced that it will close down its SureStep Brand tire tile production line, effective Dec. 11.

SureStep Tire Tile at one point in the early 1990’s was the preferred entryway flooring material for chains like Wal-Mart, Safeway, and Nordstrom, among other retailers. The product was made from 100 percent recycled California bias ply truck and bus tires.

Rick Snyder, president of U.S. Rubber Recycling, Rick Snyder says, “It sickens me to have to make this announcement so close to the Christmas Holiday. We have some employees who have been with us for nearly 20 years. The employees are victims of the outrageous greed of a few individuals at the likes of Enron, Dynegy and Perot Systems that drove our energy costs up over 400%. Recycling tires is energy intensive and we just couldn’t justify keeping the line open.”

“I am also somewhat disappointed with the lack of help we received from the State of California.  Over the past 20 years, we diverted millions of these tires from landfills and dumps. Tires have an estimated life of over 500 years before they break down naturally so you don’t want to be putting them in a landfill.

“The agency we deal with, the CIWMB, has over 12 million dollars in “directed funds” to reduce the number of landfilled tires, sitting unused in a bank account doing nothing.”  “This is an out and out disservice to the taxpayers of the State because there really isn’t a lot of other uses for these types of tires”.