Prairie Rubber Corp. started in 1996 as a community-based, economic development idea involving local investors, the town of Assiniboia and Recovery Technologies. The first tires were shredded in 1999 and a new, $4.2 million processing facility opened in 2001. The company employs thirty-six people and generates $5 million in annual sales by recycling the rubber, steel and fibre from scrap tires. The rubber is ground into a wide variety of particle sizes for different markets from sports fields to roofing tiles. FieldTurf, a Montreal-based company that manufactures and installs sports fields, is Prairie Rubber's primary customer. FieldTurf can be found in 30 baseball parks around the world including Tampa Bay, Tokyo and Mexico City Dome, about two dozen soccer teams in England, Russia, Scotland and Spain, and fifty college and professional football stadiums teams in Canada and the United States, including Ottawa and Detroit. New uses for the recycled rubber have included asphalt for paving and moldings for products as diverse as mud flaps and buckets. Steel is sold to Ipsco in Regina while the fibre is used in the Alberta oil patch.
Joe Ralko