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A Malaysian company has come to New Mexico saying it has the solution to the pressing environmental plague of tossed-away tires.

The story even stars a true Hollywood action hero.

But whether the Petra Group, with the financial backing of actor Mel Gibson, can be successful in its plans to spark a rubber recycling revolution from a plant in Gallup has created at least one skeptic within the rubber industry.

"This industry has been plagued with the bones of all the other would-bes or wannabes . . . that have fallen by the wayside and are now footnotes in the annals of scrap-tire lore," said Michael Blumenthal, senior technical adviser with the Rubber Manufacturers Association in Washington, D.C.

Petra, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, unveiled plans on July 11 to open a tire recycling plant in Gallup that would eventually employ up to 150 people. Gallup and McKinley County are contributing $1 million toward building the shell of an estimated $4 million facility. The state is planning to chip in about $3 million. Petra signed an agreement to lease the building for 10 years.

The operation — to be led by former state Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans under the name Green Rubber Global — will make its U.S. headquarters at an undetermined location in Albuquerque.

Vinod Sekhar, the company's founder, said Petra has created a patented technology to recycle waste tires into a natural rubber material that can be sold on the open market at prices lower than traditional rubber.

Sekhar and his supporters said recycling tires can help solve the global environmental problem caused by the 1 billion tires thrown away worldwide each year that otherwise are burnt in cement kilns or dumped in landfills.

"This is amazing technology," said Gibson, speaking during a news conference at the Sandia Science & Technology Park. "When I heard about it, I was dancing. There's no limit to it."

Tires can now be reused in limited functions, for example in flooring or other surfacing materials. They are difficult to remold into wider uses because of vulcanization, the carbon-sulfur bond discovered by Charles Goodyear in the 1860s as a way of making rubber resistant to varying temperatures.

Sekhar, however, says his company's patented "De-Link" technology not only "devulcanizes" the rubber in tires, it does so with no waste or environmental after-effects.

"For 100 years since vulcanization was developed . . . there has never been a way until now to be able to recycle these rubber products," Homans said.

However, Blumenthal said Petra isn't the first to try the process which, in most efforts so far, "has not really been technologically successful."

Petra took a crack at the U.S. market about 10 years ago but found no success, Blumenthal said.

"Basically, this is their second bite at the apple," Blumenthal said. "Whatever they state in public, they simply have to prove to their potential customers."

Sekhar said back then the company was marketing a product that was only about 10 percent cheaper than virgin rubber. Rubber prices then were low, and the world wasn't abuzz over the need for so-called "green technology" like today. The product was a tough sell, he said.

"It was an uphill battle to convince people to be green," he said.

So the company went back to the drawing board, tweaking the technology to a point where the end product is now 40 percent cheaper than market prices for conventional rubber, he said.

With rubber prices high and the world aflutter with environmental concern, the time is right to hit the open market, Sekhar said.

"Green is everywhere," he said. "We're finally coming to terms that we can't keep killing the planet."

Ultimately, though, the business is less about environmental issues than about marketing a less expensive raw material, he said.

"The green is the feel-good. It's the cherry on top," he said.

The company's arrival in New Mexico, he said, is in large part thanks to the state's expediency in striking a deal. Petra, which only decided to roll out its product a year ago, struck a deal with New Mexico in about six months, he said.

"I'm convinced if I'd have gone to another state they would have been welcoming, but I'd still be in negotiations," he said.

In New Mexico, though, plans call for having his recycling plant ready by July 1, 2008. The company hopes to open future plants in Malaysia, Central America, Mexico, and England, as well as possible U.S. expansion, he said.

"New Mexico will be the first," he said. "The brightest shining star for others to emulate."

Until then, skeptics like Blumenthal will be watching and wondering whether Petra can create a product that holds up to industry standards.

"From our perspective, they simply have to prove what they said," Blumenthal said. "The jury is still out and it's definitely a wait-and-see kind of ordeal right now