Blockwell Funding Corp. Agrees To Provide Pre-Commencement Funding For Tirex Leases.

MONTREAL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 1996--Tirex America Inc. (NASDAQ BULLETIN BOARD - "TXMR") announced today that Blockwell Funding Corp. of Oyster Bay, N.Y., has agreed to provide lease financing for all of Tirex's vendors, dealers, and lessees who meet Blockwell's credit requirements.

Blockwell, which provides more than $100 million a year in equipment lease financing, has further advised Tirex that it is prepared to enter into pre-commencement agreements with approved lessees who agree to pre-delivery payment schedules. Such agreements could provide lease financing for Tirex's cryogenic tire disintegration ("TCS-1") systems prior to delivery, allowing Tirex to obtain the funds needed for the manufacture of TCS-1 systems on order.

Blockwell has entered into discussions with Bentley Environmental Engineering, Inc. of Edmond, Okla. respecting Bentley's qualifications for pre-commencement funding for the lease of the first of three TCS-1 Systems which Bentley is presently negotiating with Tirex. Tirex America has already received an order for eight TCS-1 Systems from Ocean/Ventures III, a company under common ownership and control with the New Jersey solid waste recycling firm, Ocean County Recycling Center, Inc. Ocean/Ventures expects to lease eight TCS-1 Systems for initial, renewable five year terms, with total lease payments during such 5-year initial periods aggregating to $1,750,000 for each System plus a 2% royalty on revenues from the sale of all by-products of the process. Ocean/County paid Tirex a $65,000 security deposit on the first TCS-1 System which will be delivered upon completion of development.

Tirex America's TCS-1 System is a new technology for the disintegration of scrap tires into fine, clean rubber powder. Its subsidiary, Tirex Canada Inc. was formed, in Canada, to complete the development of the first production model and to serve as Tirex's manufacturing arm. In May of this year Tirex Canada was offered a loan under the Industrial Recovery Program for Southwest Montreal in an aggregate amount not to exceed the greater of $500,000 (Canadian) or twenty percent of Tirex's total development costs for the TCS-1 System. Such loan offer followed Tirex's receipt, in March, of the final portion of a grant of $36,800 (Canadian) upon the acceptance by the Quebec Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Commerce of a feasibility study of the TCS-1 technology conducted by Techtran: Technology Transfer Institute of Montreal. In addition, the Royal Bank of Canada, in a strategic alliance with the Canadian Federal Office of Regional Development for Quebec ("FORDQ"), has confirmed Tirex's eligibility to participate in FORDQ's Financing Program for Innovative Small Businesses in Quebec. Under such program, FORDQ will provide a government guarantee of 80% of bank loans of up to $500,000 (Canadian).

Tires are designed to be, and are, inherently durable. Their disposal, once they are discarded as scrap, poses a substantial waste management problem in the face of diminished permitted landfill capacity and increasing environmental concerns. Tirex believes that the TCS-1 System will provide an effective and economically viable answer and that this is supported by the conclusions of the Techtran feasibility study which indicated that the scrap tire market has enormous potential for growth, especially in the area of high, value-added applications which require fine, clean ground rubber, the TCS-1 System will be capable of producing such product and, that the TCS-1 System will have significant economic, environmental and technological advantages over competing systems.

CONTACT: Tirex America Inc., Montreal

Terence C. Byrne, 514/335-0111