Monmouth Rubber and Plastics Corp., a privately- held manufacturer
of cellular rubber and plastics materials located on the Jersey
Shore, has recently announced an expansion of its unique recycling
program to include all products, scrap and shipping materials
that it provides to every one of its North American customers.
"If Monmouth sold it, Monmouth will take it back and recycle it,"
said company founder and President John M. Bonforte Sr., speaking
from his offices in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Monmouth manufactures the trademarked products Durafoam™, a closed
cell sponge rubber and plastic foam; Airaflex, an open cell sponge
rubber and foam product; and Duraflex solid rubber and plastic
sheeting in buns, sheets, rolls and stripping. The recycling process
itself revolves around Monmouth's proprietary system Bondaflex,
which makes marketable products from recycled composites of rubber
and plastic.
Bonforte has been involved in recycling rubber materials since
the early 1960's, when, he says, "there was a different political
atmosphere," which did not encourage the reuse of scrap materials.
In 1963, Bonforte put together a recycling program for Rubatex,
his employer at the time. By 1967, he had left his employer to
become the president of Monmouth Rubber Corporation (the company
changed its "doing business as" name to Monmouth Rubber and Plastics
in 1995). The company employs 55 people, seven of whom work exclusively
in recycling, at its 52,500 square foot facility.
"Everyone wants to be in recycling until they find out what its
really about," says Bonforte. "To have a successful recycling
program, you have to have three elements: the technology, a marketable
product, and someone to buy the product. It's like a three-legged
stool, and you need all three legs for the stool to be balanced.
For instance, everyone wants to be into tire shredding. You pay
$250 thousand for equipment, and people pay you to take the scrap
tires, but then what? If you can't sell it to someone, or you
don't have a government subsidy, in all too many cases you don't
have a business. We have the technology to recycle the material
we get into a whole host of products, and we have developed the
market to sell those products."
Monmouth marketplace contains almost every conceivable industry,
including aerospace, transportation, construction, gasketing,
and the athletic and medical industries, and is currently either
selling or sampling products into every automobile manufacturer.
Monmouth has been involved in various types of recycling technology
almost since Bonforte took over the company, but that aspect of
the company has grown tremendously since the 1980's, when government
regulations started to become more friendly toward recycling.
"Back then, big business was the in thing. There weren't tax breaks
for recycling, and no one from the business schools wanted to
know what an entrepreneur was. Regulations weren't designed with
recycling in mind. Now, entrepreneurship and environmental quality
are the in things, and that new atmosphere in government, corporate
America and all over the planet is one of the reasons that we
have been so successful in expanding our recycling business."
Monmouth also runs programs to obtain the scrap needed for the
Bondaflex process from outside sources. To seek new streams of
material, the company send out a 1-page fax that they call "Turn
Your Trash Into Cash," in which they offer to purchase scrap from
the company receiving the fax. The fax lists the types of scrap
Monmouth is looking for, including scrap of open and closed cell
sponge; solid, cured and uncured rubber; polyethylene; neoprene;
SBR; EPDM; nitrile; polyethylene and PVC, among other products.
"Basically, any hydrocarbon," said Bonforte. Monmouth may even
pay for shipping, depending on the product involved. "The response
to Turn Your Trash Into Cash is overwhelming," said Bonforte.
According to Bonforte, Monmouth is also the only company in the
industry that will recycle rubber products that already have adhesives
affixed to them. "As far as we know, Monmouth's recycling programs
are unique in the industry," said Tim Mlnarik (That's: M L N A
R I K), Technical Products Marketing Manager for MACtac, a manufacturer
of adhesives located in Stow, Ohio, which sells Monmouth a number
of adhesive products. "We don't know of anyone else doing this,
or who has a system capable of doing this," he said.
Due in large part to the success of the Bondaflex technology,
Monmouth is expanding. The company is currently installing manufacturing
equipment that will more than double its current 10,000,000 (ten
million) bd. Ft. per year capacity.
The Bondaflex process is based on controlled particle size and
particle size distribution, and creates innovative products offering
high density materials at a cost-effective price, according to
the company's press release. The products made through this process
are used in component parts for automobiles, federally specified
concrete expansion joint applications, industrial components,
and packaging requiring high density with low costs such as underpadding
for playground equipment. The latest recycled product to become
available commercially available is recycled non-crosslinked and
crosslinked polyethylene foam and EVA foam. The company has been
visited by representatives from businesses around the world, most
recently Taiwan, seeking an understanding of the proprietary recycling
process, and Monmouth is positioning itself to sell the recycling
technology to interested companies throughout the world. Plans
are also underway to offer a similar recycling program to the
European community through Monmouth's UK partner Rubber &
Plastics Converters.
"It requires a total commitment." says Bonforte. "Its like part
of a food chain. You need a synergism to all of the components
for the recycling process to be a commercial success. Its not
difficult to do it right. It just requires education and the will
to make it work."
Says Mlnarik: " There are environmental issues in the industry.
Probably 90% of products are not recycled, so there is an environmental
impact. When someone like (Bonforte) has the ability to do what
he does we applaud their work and are sympathetic to them."
For more information, contact us.
To return to the news article index, click here.
