Project Feature

RB Recycling
Have you ever wondered what happened to those old worn tires the Les Schwab guy popped off your rims last time you took the car in and got new rubber? More than likely, those tires found their way to the facilities of a client of ours; RB Recycling.

RB Recycling, a division of Dash Multi-Corp of St Louis, MO. Is in the business of recycling used rubber car and truck tires. With a second plant under development at a location in the Terminal 4 area of the Northwest Portland Industrial area, RB Recycling will soon be increasing it's local capacity to process used rubber into useful new products.

Look down next time you have the kids at the play area at your favorite fast food eatery – that soft yielding surface under your feet? - Recycled rubber tires. As is that black mat in your horses' stall, and the floor covering that keeps the dumbbells from chipping the concrete floor at the gym when you dropped those weights after trying for a new personal best. All are mats for different uses made of rubber granules from ground-up recycled tires.

Once RB's new facility is operational, truckloads of tires will arrive at the site, be sorted, shredded, and ground to various sizes of granular material, each size suited to a different type of re-manufactured product. Nothing is wasted in this recycling process. In addition to the rubber being processed, the steel fibers in the radial belts are separated, removed and recycled – reclaiming the metal content. The waste products from the shredding and granulation processes are collected and re-refined into fuel products.

Even the building itself is reclaimed. In its former life, the building was a warehouse; a storage building for lumber products. As part of our service to RB Recycling, Manley Architects worked with the City of Portland to enact a change of use for the building from a Type S occupancy (storage) to a manufacturing occupancy. Improvements to the building include two control rooms containing electrical service entries and banks of operating switch gear and controls for the array of manufacturing equipment out on the factory floor. The facility is also undergoing general upgrades to lighting, life safety, and exterior areas for maneuvering of trucks, equipment and products.

Next time you pull out of your neighborhood tire store with your shiny new wheels, you can feel confident that your old rubber will likely find a useful new life. Take a moment then to thank RB Recycling/Dash Multi-Corp and their industry peers for their work to keep your old treads out of the landfill.