DRI Rubber turns wasteful into useful

COLDWATER, Ohio—In one year, DRI Rubber processes 110 million pounds of uncured rubber waste that would have wound up in landfills or been incinerated, keeping it out of the air and the ground.

Vice President Michael Lindsay said sustainability has always been an essential factor for DRI Rubber. The company has successfully integrated into the global rubber and tire industry by reprocessing and upcycling rubber waste streams—both the regular and more difficult streams—into a variety of high-quality, consistent and reliable products and solutions. All help to reduce waste and lower the environmental footprint of the global rubber and tire industry.

"We don't reprocess finished tires, but instead we take all the uncured waste from many different tire companies, belt manufacturers, compound facilities or other types of industries, and we denature it to reprocess and recycle that waste into a different form, including an intermediate product that is then used in a variety of industries that resell to many different markets," Lindsay said.

DRI Rubber's Commercial Director Kris Baucher added, "It is amazing how many different industrial, commercial and ergonomic items our intermediate product is used for in manufacturing."

The intermediate product is used to make rubber buckets, mud flaps, industrial solid tires, matting used in agriculture, rubber railroad crossings, road safety products such as ramps, dock bumpers, corner guards and speed bumps, just to name a few.

DRI Rubber services global tire makers including Goodyear, Continental and Michelin, offering toll manufacturing, logistical solutions and coordinating waste management. The company invests in the circular economy by reducing prime material usage and the CO2 footprint. In addition, by keeping their services local or regional, it helps to reduce transport emissions and cost.

With more than 70 years of experience in the industry, DRI Rubber offers a wide range of rubber compounds, material and finished products. The company was the first in the industry to develop fiber-reinforced compounds known as FRC and the newest product Sustacom, circular rubber compounds. The company also produces rubber matting and products for mining, automotive and transportation industries.

"Most of what we do is produce the intermediate products that our customers use to make finished goods," Baucher said. "We can offer an alternative to prime rubber that is on spec with different recipes for different types of finished goods."

DRI Rubber is a global company with locations across the world. Its U.S. headquarters is in Coldwater and it operates a finished goods division in northwest Tennessee. The Ohio location also does much of the recycling of the uncured rubber waste. Lindsay said it is a goal for 2023 to expand the current 200,000-sq.-ft. facility. The company currently employs 35 people at the Coldwater location with close to 300 people employed across all locations.

"There is a continuity and consistency and repeatability to the intermediate products that we offer to customers," Lindsay said. "In addition to the raw materials we produce, DRI also manufactures finished goods such as our rubber mats used in commercial, agriculture, equine, ice arenas, construction, golf courses and so many other areas.

"We do primarily equine mats, with 95 percent of that business being custom, which is incredibly important to the equine world. Over the past two years, we have manufactured mats for over 1,000 barns, such as Churchill Downs for example."

Lindsay and Baucher underscored that the company's products are totally circular in that they can take the rubber waste and turn it into a finished product that can be put back in the market in ways that impact the environment and the marketplace positively.

While the company is known for its intermediate and finished products, Lindsay said the biggest benefit a company receives from working with DRI Rubber is quality and repeatability to get the recipe for the product consistent every time.

Lindsay knows firsthand because he was a customer of DRI before he became a part of DRI.

"Working with DRI when I was a customer, I told the DRI team—who was very strong technically—that price was not always the biggest factor, because quality and repeatability are also highly important. It costs a customer money if a supplier doesn't provide the same product every time. At DRI, we say what we are going to do, and then we do it. We offer our customers consistency, quality and transparency so that they can count on us."

In general, Lindsay and Baucher are excited about the future of both sides of DRI's business.

"We are committed to providing high-quality, consistent, circular solutions," Lindsay said. "We are optimistic of the future on both sides of our business, which are somewhat dependent on each other and on circularity. If we can increase that 110 million pounds to 150 million pounds next year or the following year and continue to help save the landfills, provide businesses with lower cost solutions and grow the business with high quality, lower cost products, that's what we want to do."

To ensure DRI provides a reliable, consistent high-quality product, the company invests in knowledge, capacity and innovation through both its internal laboratories and by collaborating with universities and specialized labs. This also allows the company to find better alternatives for using raw materials and increasing the life span of its products.

DRI Rubber is a Dutch company with headquarters in Waalwijk, Netherlands. It was founded in 1948. Three generations of the De Ruijter family developed the company from a local trading company into a worldwide market leader in processed rubber compounds and fiber-reinforce compounds.

DRI Rubber has production facilities in the U.S. and Eastern Europe. The company has been named one of the "10 Most Innovative Companies in Europe 2022" and the "Top Rubber and Tire Solutions Provider Europe 2022."

The company's Sustacom product portfolio was nominated for the Environmental Achievement of the Year Award at this year's Tire Technology Expo in Hanover, Germany.