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Used tires have limited uses once they’re worn out. (Photo by Alex, via Flickr, Creative Commons)
Prism Worldwide is likely the swan song for Bob Abramowitz, its CEO and 66-year-old co-founder. The tire recycling company is also a chance for his environmental redemption.
“I did bottled water for Costco,” Abramowitz said. “So we were making a billion-plus bottles a year. This is kind of my penance for doing that.”
The Kirkland, Wash.-based startup last fall announced $40 million in funding from investors including Jim Sinegal, Costco’s co-founder and former CEO, and Columbia Pacific Advisors.
Prism is using patented technologies that can take some of the 300 million used tires that are tossed out each year in the U.S. and turn them into a polymer that can be used in a variety of applications.
Bob Abramowitz, CEO and co-founder of Prism Worldwide. (Prism Photo)
Old tires have limited uses when they reach end-of-life. They can be burned as fuel for power plants or to heat industrial processes such as cement production. Or they can be ground up and used as components of sports fields, asphalt and in consumer products such as vehicle mudflaps or new tires. Some get dumped in landfills.
Prism is able to reverse the vulcanization process that helps tires hold their shape, but it curtails their recycling applications. The polymers created by the startup have a wider range of applications than are possible with tires that have just been pulverized. The polymers can replace some of the virgin materials used in products, and can be re-vulcanized.
The company produces little pellets of its polymer at its New York-based manufacturing facility, where it also conducts R&D.
Prism blends the recycled tire polymer with other ingredients to meet specifications needed by customers. It’s currently being used in rubber car mats, plastic tote containers, racks for shipping goods and other applications.
Prism co-founder Robert “Spike” Anderson is the former head of Anderson Daymon Worldwide, which later became ADW and is Costco’s largest supplier of goods and services. Anderson sold his company in 2014 to Acosta Sales & Marketing. He’s serving as the chair of Prism’s board of directors.
The startup’s third co-founder is William Coe, a former award-winning Lockheed Martin engineer and decades-long entrepreneur in materials science, and the source of the recycling technology.
Robert “Spike” Anderson, Prism Worldwide co-founder and chair of its board of directors. (Prism Photo)
“It’s a very interesting partnership,” Abramowitz said. “This is not a young boys club. This is the old boys club. I’m the youngest.”
The company closed its Series A and A1 funding in November. Sinegal and Columbia Pacific Advisors led the round, and Anderson also participated. Abramowitz called Sinegal “a good friend and a great supporter.”
Prism is commercially viable, he said, and expects to reach sales this year that are in the low eight-figures. The company has more than 20 employees.
Abramowitz is seeing increasing interest in the product from companies who are aiming for sustainability goals and low-carbon targets. Using Prism’s recycled materials has a lower climate impact, he said, and can be cost competitive compared to new materials.
The long-time entrepreneur hopes his kids, their spouses and his four grandchildren will see that beyond his bottled water sales, he worked to help solve the planet’s environmental troubles.
“It’s now trying to do something right,” Abramowitz said, adding that it brings his career journey “full circle.”
