( CNN ) -- What do you see when you come across a big tire dump ? One company pulverizes old tires into fine grains to use in other products . An eyesore ? A nursery for mosquitoes ? Potential for a headline-grabbing , months-long tire fire ? Tony Cialone sees `` the nation 's newest raw material . '' Cialone is founder of Lehigh Technologies , a Naples , Florida , company that pulverizes rubber from used tires and factory scrap into powder as fine as talc . The powder can be used in manufacturing products that would benefit from the durability of rubber , such as longer-lasting paint , UV-resistant plastics and more elastic sealants . `` What makes a tire so difficult to dispose of -- it does n't want to break down , it lasts forever ... it 's the same type of attributes we can bring to new products , '' Cialone says . The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that about a quarter of scrap tires are left in landfills each year . The rest are used as fuel , retreaded or recycled for other projects . The powder from Cialone 's business also can be used in manufacturing new tires . Lehigh Technologies Chief Financial Officer Patrick George says that the rising prices for oil-based synthetic rubber and natural rubber are an incentive for companies to re-use rubber . Several years ago , while working in the business of recycling newspapers , bottles and cans , Cialone was asked to find a use for unwanted tires . Cialone says he talked with potential customers of recycled rubber to determine what they would need . Ultrafine particles , in large volume , was the answer . So he ended up in Germany at a company that did precision-grinding of pharmaceuticals for time-release capsules . `` I walked in with my bag of rubber and they threw me out , '' Cialone recalls . But they invited him back , ran the rubber through their process , and produced the powder Cialone was looking for . Cialone bought the company , and in 2006 put that process to work at a plant in suburban Atlanta . The process works like this : Lehigh brings in scrap rubber from tire manufacturers and rubber chips from tire recyclers who have already removed the steel and fiber . The rubber is sliced and diced , then frozen with liquid nitrogen to make it extremely brittle . Then it 's shaken , crushed , cut and ground to various fine sizes for various needs . Several companies are testing out the powder in their products . `` We have a variety of customers , everyone from customers who manufacture tires , to customers who manufacture automotive parts like wheel wells , or bumpers , or paints and coatings , companies that are making rubberized flat bed inner liners , to companies that are using it for paints for home use , or backing to carpet underlayment , '' Cialone says . The plant can grind out up to 100 million pounds of powder per year . The company is planning to build an additional facility in 2008 . Pulverizing rubber is not new , says Mike Blumenthal , senior technical director for the Rubber Manufacturers Association , a trade group . But Lehigh is grinding the powder finer than other companies . `` Lehigh could have an impact if they are successful because they will open up new opportunities that up to now have not been available , '' Blumenthal says .
One of scrap tires are left in landfills 2008 , according to the Cialone . About a quarter company is grounding old tires up into fine particles for use in other products . The plant can grind out up to 100 million pounds of powder per year .