Environmental Waste International Inc. (EWS), an Ajax-based tire recycling company, is boosting its ownership of its joint venture firm Ellsin Environmental Ltd. to 100 percent.
The company offered its Ellsin partners 2.26 million shares of EWS stock in exchange for total ownership of Ellsin, a Canadian tire recycling venture that specializes in reverse polymerization.
Government officials and shareholders have approved the acquisition, according to EWS President Stephen Simms. “Lawyers are finalizing the contract, so we're just waiting day-to-day,” he said.
The deal means EWS also has reacquired total control over its patented “reverse polymerization” process, which uses microwave technology to transform scrap tires into their constituent oil, carbon black and steel.
Unlike pyrolysis, reverse polymerization doesn't burn tires, which means it can reclaim virtually 100 percent of a tire's byproducts, according to EWS.
When Ellsin was founded, that company received sales and marketing rights to reverse polymerization for passenger tires in the U.S. and Canada. EWS continued to hold the rights for truck tires in those countries and for all tires in the rest of the world.
“A lot of our customers were interested in using the process on both passenger and truck tires, and they said it was too difficult having to deal with both companies,” Mr. Simms told Tire Business. “It was an opportune time to buy back the rights for passenger tires.”
Ellsin broke ground Nov. 10, 2009, on a recycling facility using the technology in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. When completed, that plant will be outfitted with a prototype TR900 reverse polymerization system with a recycling capacity of about 300,000 tires annually.
That number of tires, according to EWS, can be transformed into 240,000 gallons of oil, 2 million pounds of carbon black and 600,000 pounds of steel.
EWS shipped all the necessary TR900 components to Sault Ste. Marie in November and early December, according to Mr. Simms. “We're waiting for a few add-ons and parts,” he said, adding that he expects the pilot plant to be fully operational by late March or early April.
“We are excited about our tire technology and bringing it to the commercial level,” he said.