Danish Firm Opens Tire Recycling Facility in Houston

A large Danish tire recycling firm has opened a recycling facility in Houston at a cost of $140 million.

Genan Business & Development A/S of Viborg, Denmark, launched a plant that has the capacity to recycle about 10 million passenger tires annually, or a third of all used tires in Texas, according to a news release. The facility was constructed during the past two years and will employ about 60.

The crumb rubber producer’s first manufacturing location in the United States will be the headquarters for its expansion plans in the country, where it hopes to capture 10 percent of the American recycled tire market. Genan plans to establish four new plants in the United States in future years.

In the next 24 months Genan will expand the Houston plant to make a fine cryogenic rubber powder line and a devulcanization line to make rubber to substitute for virgin rubber compounds.

The company said it currently operates the world’s four largest tire processing plants, in Germany and Denmark.