EXHIBIT 20.1


                                                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                                OCTOBER 15, 1998

                                       
                         WASTE RECOVERY, INC. ANNOUNCES
                        SALE OF ITS U.S. TIRE SUBSIDIARY


DALLAS, October 15 -- Waste Recovery, Inc. (OTC:WRII) (WRI or the Company), 
the leading American processor of scrap tires and producer of tire-derived 
fuel (TDF), announced today that it had sold its U.S. Tire subsidiary (UST), 
which operates a tire monofill in Concord, North Carolina, to David 
Greenstein, its former President and CEO who resigned from WRI and its Board 
contemporaneously with the closing of the sale.  WRI received a sales price 
consisting of cash, the forgiveness of debt, and shares of WRI in 
consideration of the sale of UST. While the transaction provides WRI with 
some needed liquidity and the relief of maturities of debt which had become 
due in less than one year, WRI expects to report a capital loss from the 
sales transaction.

With the departure of Mr. Greenstein and earlier this quarter, departures by 
Mr. Bernstein, WRI's former Chairman, and Jay Anderson, another Board member, 
all of whom joined WRI's Board in December 1996 in connection with the 
original acquisition of UST, management of WRI has been assumed by Thomas L. 
Earnshaw, Vice Chairman, WRI's former CEO.  A Board meeting has been 
scheduled in the near future to address the vacancies left by the departure 
of Messrs. Greenstein and Bernstein.

Contact:       Thomas L. Earnshaw
               Vice Chairman
               Waste Recovery, Inc.
               214-741-3865