Ecore Receives Funding For New Alabama Plant

UB Community Development LLC (UBCD), a subsidiary of United Bancorporation of Alabama (United Bank) based in Altmore, Alabama, announced that it will provide Ecore International Inc. with a $10 million Federal New Markets Tax Credit.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Ecore is repurposing and equipping a 225,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Ozark, Alabama, to recycle end-of-life truck tires and produce flooring and surfacing products from the reclaimed rubber.

“We value UBCD’s mission to invest in communities because, like UBCD, we believe that when our people and our communities thrive, we thrive,” Art Dodge, CEO of Ecore, said. “We are excited to build this world-class manufacturing and recycling facility in Ozark, Alabama.”

Ecore says the products the company plans to manufacture in Ozark include “high-performance” fitness, athletic, recreational and commercial flooring, playground and athletic field surfacing and insulation products.

The company says its planned Ozark location will source used truck tires from collection points in the surrounding region.

For its Alabama location, Ecore is renovating and refurbishing a former window and door manufacturing plant in Ozark.

“In 2018, Jeld Wen Windows and Doors of Ozark closed its facility and laid off 80 employees,” Alex Jones, president of UBCD, said of the facility renovated by Ecore. “Five years later, Ecore is hiring 75 employees to repurpose the closed facility.

During a recent site visit, Jones and other UBCD officials met employees who had worked at the facility in the past. “ Playing a role in reopening a facility and getting community members back to work is core to our mission,” he said.

UBCD describes Ecore’s manufacturing process as “virtually zero waste.” Waste material from the manufacturing process is collected and recycled back into the system “as rubber can be continuously recycled and does not deteriorate through the recycling process,” according to the development bank.

© Scrap Tire News, October 2023