New Use for Old Factory Conveyor Belts

Jul 2, 2020 | Go Green

A green company is spending green hoping to make more green by going green. Nothing is considered garbage to RubberForm Recycled Products. The Lockport company’s motto is the three Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The company was founded in 2005 by a brother-sister team who left the corporate world to start the business. Rubberform uses a technique called compression molding to turn old scrap tires and computer parts into items like wheel stops for parking lots and sign bases that hold stop signs at places like Wegmans. “We are eco-industrial. We are looking at being a sustainable manufacturer,” said company vice president Deborah Robbins. “We don’t want to have any waste or have effect on the environment so were taking scrap tires and making them into different products.”

Now Robbins says RubberForm is expanding into a new market segment by helping to find new life for old conveyor belts. “We’re going to take old conveyor belts from quarries and mines and cut them out and we have a customer in Texas who makes them into dock bumpers,” Robbins said. “So again, we’re trying to find other recyclable materials to keep out of the waste stream.”

Rubberform has purchased new die-cutting equipment that just came in last week. They’ll begin turning old conveyor belts into parts for loading dock bumpers next week. Robbins says she also hopes to acquire old belts from factories across the Northeast.

Will RubberForm have a positive impact on the environment and encourage other companies to go green? Stay tuned. But Robbins says the sky is the limit when it comes to recycling. She’s hoping RubberForm can break into new markets like home improvement, playground, marine, and more.

By Elizabeth Carey – WKBW TV Reporter