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February 11, 2008 FRESH FACES

Treads: From Trash To Treasure

Tires certainly are instrumental in getting you from A to B. But a tire by itself can’t really get you places, unless you are Anne S. Evans, the new district director for U.S. Commercial Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce that helps companies get into the international marketplace.

Evans, a businesswoman and self-proclaimed “global junk lady” got that title from working at her family’s 60-year-old Middletown tire business, City Tire.

“I was working in Washington, D.C. when my dad got sick,” Evans said. “I had to come home and run the tire and retreading business.”

The Middletown native operated the business after graduating in 1977 from Newton College of the Sacred Heart, now known as Boston College, with a degree in political science.

Evans, 51, would bring disposed tires to the town dump because only about 20 to 30 percent of a customer’s tires would be reusable. Eventually, Evans had to find another waste solution when the dump refused to accept any more loads.

Evans sold City Tire and in 1986, she managed the tire supply and fuel contracts for Exeter Tires-To-Energy, the solution to her tire waste problem.

“That facility today uses 10 million old tires and makes electricity for the state. It’s a little known secret,” Evans said.

When she had gained a reputation within the tire industry, the United Kingdom government asked her to start a similar project in their country. In 1989, she founded Elm Energy & Recycling Ltd., traveling back and forth between the two countries while also developing recycling projects elsewhere. Her efforts have impacted the industry as far away as Belgium, Brazil and Korea.

“I came to a point in my life where I didn’t want to commute to these countries regularly,” Evans said. So when a position opened up with U.S. Commercial Service in Middletown, she went for it. Now, she considers the position her greatest opportunity and achievement. Evans has received numerous awards, and continues her involvement with Junior Achievement .

“I can say, ‘Give us the chance to help your business because it’s the best way to grow,’” she said.

 

 

Emily Boisvert is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.

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