STONEVILLE, Miss.—An agriculture engineer has taken cotton ginning technology to the rubber recycling industry, and the result could be a further reduction in scrap tires sitting in landfills. W. Stanley Anthony's two patent-pending methods for recovering fiber from scrap rubber tires were developed at the behest of NASA.
Mr. Anthony, head of the Agricultural Research Service's Cotton Ginning Research Unit, took the principles behind cotton ginning and adapted them to remove the fiber from scrap rubber.
``We are using this technology on waste from tire recycling plants, which enables recyclers to generate more revenue from their operations,'' he said.
The new process can take 50,000 pounds of scrap tires and turn it into an additional $10,000 for the recycler, according to Mr. Anthony.
A demo site is being selected for the first testing of the equipment.
``We will have one operational by the end of the year, and a second one shortly thereafter,'' he said.
Once manufactured, the machine will cost between $50,000 and $100,000.
``With the right production, payback can be in 10 weeks,'' Mr. Anthony said.