T.H. Glennon Co. Inc., Salisbury, Mass., is now offering a colorant product designed to work with rubber mulch created from scrap tires. “Right now we have 12 colors for the rubber market, and we can customize to meet requests,” says Jim McGinn, the company’s vice president and general manager. 
The company has been producing colorants for the wood mulch industry for a number of years, but according to McGinn, this product is newly formulated specifically to work with mulch made from shredded tires. “What works on the wood absolutely does not work on the rubber; getting it to stick is the issue,” notes McGinn.
According to McGinn, the dyes can be tumbled with tire fragments to create a desirable colored mulch product. “The concept is similar to a cement mixer,” he notes. “The colorant is a water-based liquid, with a consistency similar to latex paint, but formulated to adhere to rubber.” Trommel screens can be used to mix tire shreds with the colorant, McGinn notes.
The rubber mulch market is still developing, but McGinn believes applications are being discovered and that output will grow. “Tire recyclers are finding applications at municipal playgrounds, as one example. The rubber mulch is safer on bare feet,” says McGinn.
“It’s just getting off the ground,” says McGinn of the rubber mulch industry, “and there aren’t that many companies making rubber mulch right now. But some tire recyclers think the market for this has the capability of really mushrooming.”
McGinn notes that the abundance of used tires “is very attractive to recyclers,” and that “having a new outlet with this market would be a major positive” for tire recyclers.
“Whether rubber mulch as a product will be embraced by municipalities and home owners remains to be seen, but it certainly has the potential to become a major market,” says McGinn. “The wood mulch market has been a terrific one.”
Additional information on the new colorant product line for rubber mulch can be found at the company’s Web site, www.mulchcolorjet.com.