Rubber recycling plant coming to Stockton
STOCKTON
Rubber recycling plant coming to Stockton
Nov 11, 2016
By Joe Goldeen
STOCKTON — A national producer of crumb rubber made from recycled tires and used for rubberized asphalt and sports fields is in the process of converting its Stockton warehouse into a full-fledged manufacturing facility that eventually could employ 20 workers or more.
Newport Beach-based CRM Rubber credited a $286,000 sales tax exemption made possible by AB199, authored by Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, and signed by the governor in 2015, in part for its choice to expand its presence at the Port of Stockton.
“Assemblymember Eggman’s bill was extremely helpful in bringing our company to the Stockton area. We had been considering an additional tire recycling plant in Northern California for some time and the promise of a sales tax exemption in AB199 was important in that decision,” said Brian Wong, CRM Rubber’s chief financial officer.
Eggman said creating new jobs in the recycling industry “is the point of the whole bill. This has been and will continue to be one of my legislative focuses.”
She said CRM Rubber had been getting ready to go to Canada before the tax exemption was made possible.
“We feel like this program will be pumping $200 million into the local economy. Everybody who applies (for the exemption) must demonstrate that it will be a net gain for the state of California,” Eggman said. To date this year, more than $16 million in tax exemptions has been granted statewide. By the end of the year, that could rise to between $18 and $20 million.
Wong said CRM Rubber’s current Stockton warehouse at 1404 S. Fresno Ave. — site of the former Hormel Foods processing plant — is currently being used as a transit station with three employees. No manufacturing is going on there yet.