MARYVILLE, Mo. — Maryville is about to up its green factor in more ways than one.

Carbolytic Materials Co., which specializes in recycling used tires, announced Wednesday plans to build its first manufacturing facility in Maryville. The company also is the first tenant of Northwest Missouri State University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a $24.4 million project funded by Gov. Matt Blunt’s Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative.

Standing between the exposed beams and gravel floor of the university’s new center, CMC President Raymond Riek explained how his company works to address a major environmental challenge.

“Our first facility here will process over $2 million (in) scrap tires a year,” he said. “We’ll be reducing carbon dioxide emissions two pounds for every pound that we recover.”

Construction on the manufacturing plant will start this summer, and Mr. Riek said operation could begin there in the fall of 2009.

CMC, headquartered in St. Louis, will employ 20 to 30 people in Maryville, according to a press release.

Mayor Chad Jackson said those jobs will be above the median family income in the community. “I’m optimistic that CMC is going to bring other product-related companies to Maryville to be a part of our community,” Mr. Jackson said.

In looking for tenants to fill the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Northwest President Dr. Dean Hubbard said a company’s mission must be consistent with that of the university. He said CMC fits Northwest’s mission of instruction, research and service.

“Ponder for a moment the opportunities for our faculty to work on research and expanding and pushing the envelopes on what you’re doing, applying those concepts to other settings and our students who will be involved in that,” Dr. Hubbard said.

The current theme for possible tenants for the center is environmental, and the university is actively seeking more occupants. Dr. Hubbard said one company, which hasn’t reached the signing stage, specializes in solutions for water pollution while another company concentrates on the medical field.

The completion of the building hinges on finding its inhabitants, and the parts devoted to clients will be completed in phases.

“We plan to come back and as companies move in, design the space that they’ll need,” Dr. Hubbard said.