Dive summary:
- With the help of a new process that uses ash for construction material, Rochester, Minn. is working towards being a 100% recycled city.
- Envirolastech, a Rochester based company, has been working on a technology that mixes ash from incinerators and recycled plastics to produce building material that can replace lumber, railroad ties and landscape blocks.
- It may become possible to build an entire house out of the recycled garbage and, because the product doesn’t contain any wood fiber, it won’t foster mildew or mold.
From the article:
“Ash is the number one by-product that goes into our landfills, whether it’s coal or incinerator ash. It makes up between 40 to 60 percent of every landfill we have,” said Paul Schmitt.
He’s the president of Rochester’s Envirolastech company, a firm he founded as a way to research, test and develop better ways to deal with garbage.
The former building contractor spent the past 19 years experimenting with different mixtures of mineral ash and recycled plastic to produce building materials, or “better lumber,” as he calls it. ...
