Paul Downey, P.Eng

From circular waste, to the circular economy, Paul’s leadership demonstrates remarkabel traction! When the Hagersville Tire Fire burned approximately 14 million scrap tires for 17 days in 1990, he saw firsthand the environmental consequences of treating end-of-life tires as waste rather than as a resource. Paul went on to found Pliteq, and build a company that engineers high performance acoustic, vibration, flooring and other building products from recycled rubber.

Today, Pliteq manufactures in Ontario, sells its products in more than 50 countries, and has converted the equivalent of approximately 65 million scrap tires into durable products for the built environment. That includes approximately 14 million tires in the past two years alone, equal to an entire year’s generation of end-of-life tires in Ontario.

Along the way, Paul has remained committed to developing the next generation of engineers and business leaders, demonstrating that a long term commitment to circular manufacturing can turn a difficult waste stream into high performance products used around the world.