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Rubber Recycling Program – Monmouth Rubber & Plastics Guarantees to Recycle Everything!

Recycling Program:

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.

John Bonforte Sr. has been involved in recycling rubber materials since the early 1960’s.

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.

To have a successful recycling program, you have to have three elements.

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 Rubber 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.”

Bondaflex - NJ Neoprene Sponge & Foam Manufacturer Stays True to Green Commitment, Does More With Less - Monmouth Rubber & Plastics Corp, 75 Long Branch Avenue Long Branch, NJ 07740 U.S.A | 1-888-362-6888

Monmouth Rubber 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.

The only company in the industry that will recycle rubber products that already have adhesives affixed to them.

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.

Total Commitment to Recycling Rubber and Plastics Materials.

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. It’s 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.”

 

A family of materials; A world of solutions provided by Monmouth Rubber & Plastics!

Monmouth Rubber & Plastics Corp. has been a leader in the innovation and technology of cellular polymeric materials for over 54 years.

As a recognized leader and innovator of proprietary closed cell cross linking technology and polymer blend technology, Monmouth was retained to do product development and improvement by a variety of companies. Some of these companies, in chronological order, are:

B.F. Goodrich, Sponge Products Div. – Shelton, CT
Neoprene/Vinyl Nitrile Blends

Uniroyal Chemical, Ensolite Div. – Mishawaka, IN
IV-1 IV-5 Series – Neoprene/Vinyl Nitrile Blends – Ensofoam Crosslinked EVA Blends

Plymouth Rubber, Plymouth, MA
Crosslinked Low Density EVA Blends

Sentinel Products Corp. – Hyannis, MA
Polyolefin Blends, all types including Metallocene Resin Crosslinked Foam

Monmouth Rubber & Plastics Corp.’s in-house technology timeline is as follows:

1968 – Monmouth develops and perfects the Durafoam™ multi-step process for the curing and blowing of low-density closed cell materials. Prior to 1968, most materials were cured with the one step or jump-blow process which resulted in densities no lower than 12 pounds per cubic foot. By using a controlled multi-step-cure blow process, Monmouth was able to crosslink and blow materials in densities down to 2 pounds per cubic foot. Monmouth has made significant improvements to this Durafoam™ multi-step process over the years as polymers, products and customer needs have changed.

1969 – Monmouth develops for B.F. Goodrich, Shelton CT, a low density, Vinyl/Nitrile/Neoprene blend for industrial and automotive markets. Monmouth’s proprietary technology in hydrocarbon polymer blending has been the keystone in its technology firsts. The product line developed for B.F. Goodrich in 1969 is the forerunner of the Vinyl/Nitrile/Neoprene blends produced today by Rubatex®, Uniroyal Ensolite and Halstead.

1971 – Monmouth develops the first commercial, low density, Neoprene/SBR blend for the industrial and automotive markets. Listed under ASTM-D-1056, SCE41 through SCE45, Monmouth produced and sold commercial blends of its Durafoam™ C121A series in densities as low as 3.5 pounds per cubic foot.

1974 – Monmouth commercializes the world’s first 100% EPDM, low density, closed cell sponge. Proprietary Durafoam™ technology allowed Monmouth to produce the C191XLDS in densities as low as to 2.0 pounds per cubic foot. One outstanding, commercially successful application for this technology was as a sealing gasket for all Chrysler tail lamps. Durafoam™ C191XLDS was used exclusively during the 1980’s in all Chrysler vehicles. Monmouth is currently listed as an approved source under Chrysler MSAY 430.

1977 – Monmouth provides some of the initial EVA Polyethylene crosslinked foam technology and developmental work for the Ensolite Division of Uniroyal. The product was ultimately marketed by Uniroyal under the trade name “Ensofoam”. This developmental work included pilot plant production at our Long Branch facility as well as product development.

1986 – Monmouth introduces its Bondaflex™ line of recycled cellular and solid rubber and plastic materials. Monmouth’s technology centers around its proprietary process for controlled particle size distribution of similar and dissimilar materials. Since 1998, the Bondaflex™ process has resulted in Monmouth being able to recycle in-house 98% of all the materials it manufactures.

The Bondaflex™ process also allows Monmouth to guarantee to its customers that Monmouth will accept back at its Long Branch facility 100% of the material that Monmouth supplies. This includes skids, banding wire, stretch wrap, as well as the cellular and solid material that Monmouth makes and sells. Monmouth knows of no other manufacturer that offers such a guarantee.

August 1996
– Monmouth commercializes its Durafoam™ DK series of Kinetically Grafted Blends. KGB blend technology allows dissimilar polymers (those that do not blend well mechanically) to blend as a result of a chemical bond that develops through proprietary KGB technology. The DK benefit to the customer is a blend product with superior performance and value as opposed to more expensive, homogenous polymers. The DK series of closed cell Neoprene/EPDM blends covers the five hardness ranges of ASTM and have UL listing for flame resistance and gasketing applications.

January 1998 – Monmouth is the first to introduce a 54″ and 60″ wide pressed cured bun in a neoprene blend. The Durafoam™ process results in a press cured bun having an exceptionally large size, a tight cell structure, and superior physical properties as compared to a continuously cured roll by the open air process.

The above technology events allow Monmouth to offer to its customers the following commitment:
“To become and remain the highest quality producer of cellular rubber and plastic buns in the world”.

Other Monmouth products include:

AIRAFLEX™ – Open Cell Sponge Rubber & Plastic Foam
DURAFLEX™ – Solid Rubber & Plastic Sheeting

The Monmouth family of materials has performed well for over 40 years for sound absorption, shock absorption, conductive, non-conductive, fire retardant, high strength to weight ratio, hot and cold insulation, and floatation.

The Monmouth family of materials is made from Neoprene, Natural Rubber, SBR, Butyl, Butadiene, Nitrile, EPDM, ECH, Polystyrene, Polyethylene, Polypropylene, EVA, EMA, Mettalocene Resin, PVC, Polyurethane, and Proprietary Blends of the above.

The Monmouth family of materials is offered in Buns, Sheets, Rolls, Stripping, with and without pressure sensitive adhesive, and specialty laminations.

The Monmouth family of materials is used in the automotive, athletic, shoe, construction, leisure products, and miscellaneous industrial products industries. Monmouth is a global supplier with distribution points in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

Monmouth Rubber & Plastics

The Monmouth family of materials is sold through Gasket Cutters, Fabricators, and Resellers Worldwide.

Free Technical Support

Monmouth Rubber & Plastics has a comprehensive state-of-the-art physical testing laboratory, including shock attenuation testing equipment. Monmouth is equipped to test and certify to a multitude of industry and government specifications. Some of these specifications are: ASTM-D-1056, SAE J18, MSAY 430, GM6086M, Mil-R-6130, Mil-C-3133, Mil-R-6855, Mil-G-1149, Delphi SD2-207 Sec. 6.1. Product development, product testing, product evaluation, and product sampling are offered by Monmouth as part of its technical support program.

JOHN BONFORTE, SR.
TECH SUPPORT & GM

EXT. 12
Intl: +1 732-229-3444
Toll Free: (800) 375-1960

EMAIL JOHN BONFORTE SR.

 


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