Sustainable Development Goals
PROJECT INFORMATION AT A GLANCE:
Project Status:
Completed in 2017
Organizations Involved:
Klean Industries, Klean Capital, GRI, CRM
Services / Equipment:
Due Diligence, Supply Chain Management, Feasibility Studies
A significant infrastructure fund engaged Klean Industries and Klean Capital to evaluate its California acquisitions. What Klean brought that a single-sector advisor could not: the cross-industry expertise to see that a tire recycler’s recovered rubber and a road-builder’s asphalt are two ends of the same value chain and to assess the businesses around that connection.
The work linked Crumb Rubber Manufacturers (CRM) with the rubberized asphalt application at George Reed Inc. (GRI), a top performer in private and public paving, fully integrated to deliver rock, sand and aggregate alongside asphalt products. Klean recognized the symbiotic relationship between the two: recovered tire rubber becoming a performance-enhancing road ingredient, bringing tire recovery into the same commercial picture as construction.
Rubberized asphalt from recycled tires is a high-performance circular solution that enhances road durability, reduces noise, and diverts millions of end-of-life tires from landfills. The rubber engineered into a tire retains useful properties at the end of its road life and Klean’s ability to recognize that material value, and to evaluate the businesses on both sides of it, is the expertise this case demonstrates.
Find businesses that strengthen one another
The fund’s mandate focused on consolidating strategic infrastructure assets in California. Its criteria included vertical integration, long-term sustainability and circular-economy impact and each acquisition candidate needed at least one symbiotic relationship relevant to its business.
Klean completed technical and operational reviews of potential targets, drawing on its knowledge of construction, mining, resources and tire recycling. The team examined tire-derived product demand, growth prospects and end-of-life tire generation within the mining, aggregates and construction industries.
The opportunity extended across both sides of the market. Tire processors needed valuable outlets for recovered rubber; road owners and paving contractors needed durable, cost-effective surfaces. Rubberized asphalt connected those needs through an established construction product.
For wider market context, the 2023 California Waste Tire Market Report examines the state’s tire-recovery markets, including rubberized asphalt concrete and other ground-rubber applications.
Connect tire processing to an established paving business
Klean’s review identified CRM’s crumb rubber as a feedstock for GRI’s rubberized asphalt application. GRI was a top performer in private and public paving, with integrated activities supplying rock, sand and other aggregates alongside asphalt products.
This gave the fund a concrete example of how complementary assets could fit together: a recovered material from one business becoming a performance-enhancing input for another. Klean’s contribution was to identify and evaluate that industrial relationship within the acquisition assessment.
Understand the process that creates the value
Rubberized asphalt concrete combines ground tire rubber, asphalt binder and conventional aggregates. The rubber modifies the binder, helping the finished pavement resist traffic and temperature stress. Klean’s knowledge spans the full production chain:
The connection between these stages matters commercially, and Klean understands all three from the binder-blending equipment (such as Phoenix Industries’ asphalt-rubber units) to pelletized binder formulations that enable ambient-temperature storage and dosing at the asphalt plant. That is the depth of technical knowledge, not a spec sheet: it is what lets Klean judge how a recycling asset will actually serve its downstream market.
An investment opportunity grounded in a useful industrial product
Klean’s completed assignment identified the tire-recycling and asphalt connection within a broader assessment of California infrastructure assets. It demonstrated the team’s ability to link upstream resource recovery with an established downstream application and evaluate the businesses around that relationship.
The underlying product carries a substantial market proposition. California has used rubberized asphalt since the 1970s. CalRecycle reports improved resistance to cracking and rutting, longer pavement life and reduced maintenance, alongside lifecycle greenhouse-gas benefits and reported noise reductions of 2–3 decibels at higher-speed locations. Outcomes depend on pavement design, construction and operating conditions.
For an infrastructure investor, the commercial logic is straightforward:
Klean’s value lies in understanding these businesses together where material originates, how it must be processed, who can use it, and why that customer will value it. That is the cross-industry expertise that turns an acquisition thesis into a technically informed commercial strategy.
1. Klean identified a specific industrial connection.
The CRM–GRI application linked tire recovery with integrated aggregates and paving activities within an infrastructure fund’s acquisition assessment.
2. Processing knowledge connects recycling to product value.
Rubber preparation, binder formulation and asphalt production determine how recovered material serves a demanding construction market.
3. Circularity can strengthen the commercial proposition.
A useful recovered ingredient and improved pavement performance create reasons for both the recycler and the downstream customer to participate.
These are selected findings and lessons. Further technical and commercial insights are available through an engagement with Klean.
The next source of value in your portfolio may be the connection between businesses you already own or are considering acquiring. Klean brings experience across resource recovery, process technology and product markets to identify and evaluate those opportunities.
For an acquisition or consolidation strategy, engage Klean for a defined technical, operational and commercial review. For a new recycling facility, a paid Detailed Equipment Quotation (DEQ) establishes the preliminary equipment and investment basis, followed by a Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED).
Develop Your Tire Recycling and Infrastructure Investment with Klean >> GO.
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ABOUT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED
This case presents selected findings from Klean’s California infrastructure assessment alongside relevant industry application information. Further client, technical and commercial details are addressed within an agreed engagement, subject to appropriate confidentiality arrangements.
This project addresses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by considering the goals and associated targets illustrated by the WBCSD’s Tire Industry Project (TIP). TIP provides a framework for action that outlines impactful pathways for the tire sector to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To learn more about how Klean’s approach, solutions, and technologies contribute to advancing the SDGs, please review the report “Sustainability Driven: Accelerating Impact with the Tire Sector SDG Roadmap”.
