Revving up to a Tire-ing problem

‘Jet Engine With Teeth’ Chews Old Rubber Into New Products - Bloomberg: "Every year, Americans discard about 300 million tires. That’s about a third of the 1 billion thrown out worldwide. About half of those are burned for fuel, which is just slightly better than landfilling. The rest end up in playgrounds, mulch for gardens or in berms along highways.
Lehigh Technologies wants America’s scrap rubber. The nine-year-old company has raised more than $50 million for processors that collect it, freeze it and shatter it into bits. ``Think of it as a jet engine with teeth,'' said Chief Executive Officer Alan Barton, who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.
Barton’s company has developed a process that lowers the material’s temperature to negative-300 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it brittle like glass. It's then fed into a specially designed mill -- a turbine that spins at more than 2,000 revolutions per minute."

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