Say Griffin Brothers and I think oil changes and tires, not recycling and alternative energy.
Say the words reclamation center or landfill, and you might think of recycling. But alternative energy?Yet, thats just how Mike Griffin looks at his familys North Mecklenburg C&D Recycling Center on Holbrooks Road. Griffin Brothers already produces one form of alternative energy wood and in just a few years, it could tap the sun with a solar energy farm.
Griffin Brothers is recycling half of the construction debris measured by weight trucked to the center. The two largest sources of recycled material are wallboard that is reused from construction projects and clean wood leftover at building sites.
By grinding up the leftover wallboard, Griffin Brothers gets gypsum dust, which it can sell to fertilizer makers, and bits of gypsum-encrusted paper, which provides a great floor covering in large chicken houses.
The company also recycles pieces of concrete block, bricks or stone, grinding them into large and small pieces that construction companies can use for riprap, to stop erosion, or in building roads.
And if the town [of Huntersville] allows Griffin Bros. to also fill 2 to 3 acres of land between its two existing fill sites, the company has plans to use all that land once finished for a solar farm. Mike Griffin said the companys research shows such a field could produce a significant amount of electricity.
Read the entire Carolina Weekly Newspapers article here.
RocketBoom covers construction debris recycling: