Ecore closes loop with TruCircularity upcycling program

LANCASTER, Pa.—There is a time and place for all companies to make their mark, and Ecore International is on the precipice of "something huge" with its flooring business.

"We are really all about upcycling end-of-life rubber," said Deb Lechner, chief marketing officer with Ecore. "We are a growing company. We are so advanced relative to most companies in this industry, as we are not creating a new product.

"And this is an important concept today."

With about 415 employees, Ecore began as a flooring business in 1989.

The overarching company has several playground and turfing surface businesses, and many of its sites—namely in York, Pa.; Ozark, Ala.; and Lancaster—are vertically integrated in that they have a recycling segment and a manufacturing portion.

Flooring—and now truly circular, recycled flooring—remains its bread and butter business.

As such, the company launched the TruCircularity program earlier this summer for its customers, allowing them to reduce their CO2 footprints and "close the loop" with flooring products.

The program allows customers to contact Ecore to pick up their old flooring, which is then recycled directly into new flooring products. The customer then has their new flooring installed, completing the circularity loop. The new flooring may not be from what the customer had recycled, but more likely is part of the end-of-life rubber recycling stream.

"The program eliminates rubber waste by recycling and reimagining end-of-life rubber flooring," Lechner told Rubber News. "We are ushering in a new era of environmental responsibility. And we are so excited to be a circular company."

Besides recycled flooring, Ecore also uses scrap tire rubber as a waste stream for its flooring and other rubber surfaces.

And this is precisely the distinction between recycling—converting a product of value into a product of equal value—and upcycling.

"Upcycling is taking a truck tire that has a given value, breaking it down and turning it into another product with a higher value than it had initially," Lechner said.

This could take the form and process of tires to flooring or tires to playground surfaces.

And while Ecore, for the moment, only accepts rubber products, it plans to expand that collection portfolio.

"At this point in time we are only accepting rubber products, whether EPDM or another vulcanized rubber," Lechner said. "We are not currently taking turf or rubber-based layers with vinyl surfaces. But we are actively testing some things to expand what we can take back."

Lechner added that one business unit is dedicated to supplying rubber components, even to competitors.

All Ecore customers—from architecture firms to sports management companies and those in the hospitality industry—are expected to benefit from Ecore's TruCircularity program.

To honor their commitment to protecting the environment, Ecore will present each partner with a "Circularity Guarantee" certificate specifying the amount of rubber flooring they diverted from landfills.

"As its name suggests, our mission with this program is true circularity," said Ecore CEO Art Dodge. "Through this program, we work together with like-minded customers to embrace the remarkable and renewable properties of rubber, and to keep this magical material out of landfills by transforming it into high-performance surfaces that help people live healthier, safer and stronger lives."

Ecore's dedication to reclaiming rubber materials has yielded impressive environmental results, including the elimination of about 3,300 tons of CO2 emissions and the creation of more than 1,500 performance products from reclaimed rubber.

More than 300 million pounds of rubber is diverted from landfills annually across Ecore's U.S. facilities, Lechner said.

"This is our economic model," Lechner said. "We are at the beginning of something huge here."

Ecore on Sept. 22 received a $10 million tax credit from UB Community Development L.L.C., a community development partner of United Bank in Ozark.

The new market credit will allow Ecore to refurbish a 225,000-sq.-ft. brownfield site that eventually will house both recycling and manufacturing operations.

"Recycling is up and running now," Lechner said. "We are installing the flooring production equipment and eventually will have manufacturing there as well."

The Ozark location will source used truck tires from various collection points throughout the surrounding area, then process the tires through the facility as raw material.

Ozark also will be the distribution point for material manufactured there and elsewhere for customers in the Southern portion of the U.S.

"We appreciate UBCD's mission to invest in communities because, like UBCD, we believe when our people and our communities prosper, we prosper," Dodge said. "We are pleased to be establishing this world-class manufacturing and recycling facility in Ozark."

Lechner said Ecore's manufacturing process has virtually no waste, since it can recycle any scrap it might create. Rubber can be recycled continuously and does not degrade through the recycling process like paper or plastics.

Once complete, the project is expected to create 75 local jobs—another layer of circularity in its own right.

"In 2018, Jeld Wen Windows and Doors of Ozark closed their plant, laying off 80 employees. Flash forward five years and Ecore is hiring 75 employees to repurpose the shuttered facility," said Alex Jones, president of UBCD.

"During our site visit, we met employees who had worked at the facility in its prior life. To play a part in reopening a facility and bringing members of the community back to work is core to our mission."

In addition to contributing to a sustainable future, Ecore's flooring products also reduce impact, support joints, mitigate noise and reduce fall-related injury risks, enabling individuals to perform better and enjoy activities for longer periods of time.

"We welcome any and all companies to help us revolutionize the rubber recycling landscape," Dodge said. "By partnering with organizations who share our vision, we can transform the way end-of-life rubber is managed and turn it into a resource with infinite use and value. Together, we can make a significant difference in creating a planet free of rubber waste while improving the performance and safety of the spaces where we live, work and play."