Crumb Rubber receives funds from environmental investor

ERJ staff report (PRW)

Plymouth, UK -- Asset management company Foresight Group has made a £4m investment in recycler Crumb Rubber based in Plymouth, UK.

Crumb Rubber produces a number of rubber materials using automated processes with used truck and car tyre feedstock. The firm currently employs 14 people at its plant, which is capable of producing 20 000 tonnes of rubber powders annually.

The company was founded in 2005 by Una Group. Foresight's investment provides it with a “significant minority stake” in Crumb Rubber, according to a spokesperson.

Foresight said in a statement that the £4m (Euro 4.5 million) investment will allow Crumb Rubber to optimise the operations at its plant and accelerate the research and development of new applications in the rubber and plastics markets.

Foresight's other investments in the environmental field include ones it has made in Closed Loop Recycling, the bottle-to-bottle recycler based in Dagenham, and 2K Manufacturing, which is planning to manufacture a plywood substitute from waste plastics.

Giles Whitman, investment manager at Foresight, said: “There are a variety of tyre recycling processes vying for attention at the moment, but we believe Crumb Rubber's is the most sustainable, and the best placed to help deal with the 500,000 tonnes of tyres that are scrapped in the UK each year.”

From PRW (A Crain publication)

Press release from Foresight