by Diana Barnum, Correspondent
Butch Cherrington, operations manager for Complete Resources
Company.
Photos by Diana Barnum
Ever get one of those “rush” calls? Someone needs concrete or asphalt
recycled - now. Can you come out or they’ll get someone else? Sure you
can… “If they tell you that someone else said that they can come ‘just
like that,’ don’t believe them,” said Butch Cherrington, operations
manager for Complete Resources Company. “You have to get permission from
the EPA to run a plant somewhere else.”
Complete Resources was opened
in Columbus, OH, in 1988, to recycle America’s deteriorated
infrastructure. They own two portable Hazemag 1313 HSI (horizontal shaft
impactor) crushers. With crews traveling throughout Ohio, Michigan,
Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, they recycle concrete,
asphalt and small amounts of industrial silicone carbine grinding wheels.
Complete Resources has handled more than a million tons of materials from
interstate highway, city street and private demolition projects. And they
know the value of successfully handling the challenges that come with
custom crushing operations.
“Establish good communication with your EPA
contacts early on,” advised Cherrington. “Be above board with them. It
could take up to 30 days for approval, so let them know about any tight
deadlines to help your business.”
Cherrington said his EPA contacts
were good to them and very cooperative in moving their plants
around.
Nine semi loads are needed to move one plant. Under ideal
conditions, it takes another three days to are break down, travel and set
up in another location. Although some operators may tell you that it takes
less time, Cherrington advises caution, “It takes a day to get rocks
cleaned off that thing. You don’t want a rock to hit a windshield on the
highway.”
Annually, Complete Resources crushes and sells an average of
200,000 tons of concrete and asphalt. It costs an average of $4.50 per ton
to purchase the recycled materials, with savings for end users, depending
upon location, coming from reduced freight.
For example, Complete
Resources can recycle in-town. It can be cheaper to recycle old concrete
and reuse it than to have virgin materials delivered from a quarry outside
of town.
Generally, Complete Resources brings in one or both portable
plants, recycles and stockpiles debris, then moves the plant or plants out
to other locations for about three months until the stockpile sells.
In
two weeks, this season’s recycling will be completed. Then the crusher
will be off to Hilltop Basic in Cincinnati crushing virgin aggregate and
Ready Mix in the downtown area outside of I-75 near the Cincinnati Reds’
Stadium.
Their number one buyer, the City of Columbus, purchases
granular backfill specs. Number two buyers, Miranda and M/I Homes,
purchase #2 for driveway bases and for under house footings, and #1 _
(half) minus also known as (ODOT) # 304 to go on top of #2 (then paves on
top for drive ways). The private market is their number three buyer, with
ODOT pulling up the rear at number four. “Ohio (ODOT) has limited uses for
recycled concrete,” explained Cherrington. “Indiana, Michigan and
Pennsylvania – all recycle their own concrete and reuse it. Ohio wants
virgin aggregate and does not accept recycled asphalt.” Crushed “chunk”
asphalt, milled off by small contractors, sells mainly to private industry
and is used in 617 berm, temporary roads, parking lots and golf paths. New
construction companies like MI, Miranda and Dominion Homes use the
materials for homeowners’ driveways.
The percentage of products that
are recycled each year varies. Last year, 100% of their work was private
industry concrete jobs. This year two-thirds have been concrete, one-third
asphalt, with 50% coming from road sites, 50% private industry. In one
major project, Complete Resources is recycling 100,000 cubic yards of
concrete and asphalt overlays from I-670 construction with parent company
Complete General Construction.
In order to concentrate their focus on
their recycling operations, Complete Resources is subcontracting the
asphalt milling to the Shelly Company, which removes the asphalt with
their own equipment. They are recycling 100% of the concrete and reusing
it in a sewer project in the Hiawatha/Ohio State Fair area behind the
soccer stadium.
Lighter Side
Not all custom crushing challenges are
quite so serious. Actually, some can be entertaining, like on a job site
that Cherrington remembered off Route 50 south near Huntington, West
Virginia. Complete Resources was crushing native sandstone to 3-inch minus
to be used in widening Route 50. Driving through the town they were going
to stay in, a 1930’s American depression era town in West Virginia, the
crew spotted a name scrawled on a piece of plywood in front of an
Airstream trailer with the word “lawyer” incorrectly spelled wrong on it.
They drove on and rented rooms in a hotel above a bar. The challenge was
getting their wake-up call in the mornings. There were no phones in the
hotel. Turns out the bar owner had written numbers on the bar ceiling, one
corresponding to each room above. When it was time for the wake up call,
she banged on that room’s ceiling number with a broom.
Key
Facts
Complete Resources Company, 1275 E. Fifth Avenue, Columbus, Ohio
43219. Call: (614) 253-6415; or fax inquiries to: (614)
253-2531
Founded 1988
Crushers: 2 portable Hazemag 1313 HIS
crushers
Screens: 16 X 16 Tyler vibrating screen 3-deck
Ty-Rocket
Conveyors: 50 units mostly from Grasan from
Mansfield
Truck Scales: 4 Absco “Hitless” above
ground
Miscellaneous: All Cat equipment from Holt’s Cat 988 F, 980 G,
980 F, four 980 C’s, two 980 B’s – all rubber tire; One Kawasaki 95 rubber
tire wheel loader from Reco; Cat 215 Excavator with Stanley hydraulic
breaking hammer |