A couple of Green Garage-based businesses are partnering together to up the quality of like in a neighborhood on Detroit's east side lowering the number of discarded tires.
The main business behind it is
De-tread, a start-up that is working to turn discarded tires into a viable commercial product, such as floor mats for automobiles. It will be hosting a big tire cleanup in the Osborn neighborhood later this summer. The idea is to help better the community's quality of life by removing and recycling illegally dumped tires.
"The more tires we can remove the better the neighborhood is on multiple levels," says Chris Blauvelt, founder of
Patronicity, which is the other
Green Garage-based business behind the event.
Patronicity is a startup that is launching its own crowd-funding platform that specializes in making local projects available to local people. It is heading up a
crowd-funding campaign that will finance the tire cleanup and the recycling of the tires. Five dollars in donation will equal the removal of one tire and whatever amount is given will be matched by The Skillman Foundation. The crowd-funding campaign runs through Wednesday.
De-tread plans to use the tire for its product development for the rest of this year. It plans to debut its first products next year.
"This is a very different approach to cleaning up tire waste," Audra Carson, founder of De-tread.
Source: Chris Blauvelt, founder of Patronicity and Audra Carson, founder of De-tread
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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