TIRE PROCESSING CENTER NEVER DEVELOPS

UPR Missouri, Inc. has dissolved but one job remains before closing out the books on what was supposed to be a waste tire recycling industry in Cape Girardeau.

Bruce D. Stansil, who was involved with the corporation when it was founded little more than a year ago, has agreed to remove tires that had been obtained for the new business from a warehouse located in the Nash Road area.

"Stansil purchased the building about a year ago," said Ernie Beussink of 730 Corp., which owned the structure, "but, the financing apparently fell through, and the business never started."

"I wouldn't know about the status of the UPR corporation or its finances now," Stansil told the Southeast Missourian Saturday. "Some financing that had been promised failed to materialize."

Stansil, who now operates U.R. Missouri Inc. in the St. Louis area, said he would remove the tires from the building here.

"My plans now are to take the tires out in early September," he said.

Beussink said the tires pose no immediate problem.

"We have a prospective client for the building," he said. "If we sell it, the tires will have to be removed, but Stansil has assured us he will remove them."

Stansil and Thomas M. Meyer, a Cape Girardeau realtor, announced plans for the tire-processing center in July 1991.

A 20,000-square-foot building was acquired in the Nash Road area, and UPR started accepting tires.

UPR Missouri never got off the ground. It received a first-phase waste tire site permit but failed to submit to the Department of Natural Resources either a second-stage waste permit or a schedule and plan for final disposition of the waste tires as required by state solid waste management rules.

"Things just didn't work out for Stansil and UPR down here," said realtor Thomas L. Meyer. "Financing didn't develop, and Stansil moved from the area.

"I know nothing about UPR's status now," said Stansil Saturday. "I was released from that firm. I have my own up-and-going company now. We're still looking for more financing, but we are processing some tires."

Stansil uses what he describes as a "freeze" method of processing tires. The process was developed at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1970s.

"The tires are shredded, frozen and separated into rubber, metal and fabric," said Stansil. "The metal and fabric are sold, and the rubber turned into a fine crumb to be recycled into other forms such as mats, tires, or any of the other things in our life that are made of this type of rubber."

Stansil explained that the process they use is with liquid nitrogen to freeze materials, enabling it to be separated into its various components. For example, Stansil said that tires can be broken down and separated into rubber, metal, and fabric.