Just a mammoth clout away from Yankee Stadium lies Bronx County Recycling, a clean fill transfer station that receives much of New York’s finest rock, dirt, concrete (with some rebar mixed in), chunks of sidewalk and a slew of other building materials. Most of the materials — delivered by area contractors — arrive from Manhattan, the Bronx and neighboring Westchester County.
The three-year-old company, located at 475 Exterior St. in the Bronx, transforms most of the material it receives into road base, which is a clean 1.5-in. (3.8 cm) minus stone. It also manufactures a 1.5-in. (3.8 cm) material and a 2-in. (5 cm) minus clean fill and even sells cobblestones to local contractors. The company is experiencing rapid growth; last year Bronx County Recycling processed 90,000 yd. (82,296 m) of material and expects to recover 150,000 yd. (137,160 m) of material this year.
To move the materials around its recycling facility, Bronx County owns two Halla loaders — a model 380 and a model 280, and a Daewoo Mega 400-V loader — that it purchased from Big East Equipment, based in Branford, CT. What initially attracted Bronx County to these particular Halla loaders was that they were new loaders but were priced comparably with what most used machines would cost. Bronx County couldn’t resist the savings. Most important, though, the machines have been reliable and the company has received good service from Big East.
When Bronx County started out, it used a CEC 36-in. (91.4 cm) cone crusher and a reconditioned Cedarapids jaw crusher that had been placed on a CEC chassis. Over time, though, the company’s needs changed. Consequently, the company purchased a CEC 133 by 115 model closed-circuit impact crusher through Big East Equipment. That change increased its productivity significantly and has decreased its downtime.
“The cone was too small,” said Robert Morris of Bronx County Recycling. “We were down a lot and it could not handle concrete with any level of rebar. The new CEC plant has completely eliminated that problem and has increased our productivity threefold. We’ve been very happy with the initial support that was given to us from Shane Carpenter of CEC and also from the folks at Big East Equipment. They worked very closely with us to properly design our new crushing system and it has really paid off for us.”
Space in New York City is as priceless as water in a desert and Bronx County’s CEC equipment is helping it prosper.
“Land is at a very premium price in New York City. We have to get maximum utilization from a minimal amount of space and our new CEC equipment has really allowed us to maximize our efficiencies, using as little space as possible,” said Morris.
Bronx County Recycling also has purchased a 6x16 Screen-It to replace a portable tracked screen that it had purchased earlier. “We really didn’t need the flexibility and mobility that the tracked machine offered us because of the limited amount of space that we work in. We expect this Screen-It to increase our capability from 100 yd. per hour to 250 to 300 yd. per hour,” said Morris.
Initially, Bronx County employed only used pieces of CEC equipment. Now, however, through working with David Zevetchin, president and principal of Big East Equipment, and CEC, the company has developed a sizeable inventory of new equipment.
“We were very excited and impressed when CEC flew us out to Portland, OR, in March, while our impactor was being built so that we could watch the assembly of the machine and to receive training. We were very impressed with the size and scope of CEC’s operations and very impressed with the efficiencies and operations within the plant,” said Morris.
CEC has been in business for 20 years. When it started, they were reconditioning used construction crushing equipment and placing that used equipment on new CEC chassis. Since then, the company has grown and has developed its own crushing and screening product lines, becoming, in the process, a $50 million-a-year company by selling its equipment line across North America and in Europe. But the fame and fortune hasn’t gone to the company’s head: It’s still run like a small family operation. “You can pick up the phone and speak with the owners anytime you need them to work out problems,” said Morris.
Craig Mongeau
Craig Mongeau has been Construction Equipment Guide’s editor in chief for the past 21-plus years. He directly manages CEG’s Northeast and Southeast editions (which includes New England, Georgia and Alabama state supplements); Superintendent’s Profile; Crane Guide; Northeast and Southeast-based anniversary magazines; and special event publications. He also oversees CEG’s Midwest and Western Editions as well as all CEG website content.
A Hofstra University graduate, Craig began his publishing career as a staff writer for local Southeast Pennsylvania newspapers. He then became an associate editor and book editor of Springhouse Corporation, a Pennsylvania-based medical publishing house and then worked as a managing editor of Rockhill Communications, based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., where he created and managed content for a national Voluntary Hospital Association website.
Originally from Pittsfield, Mass., Craig has lived in North Wales, Pa., for the past 27 years. He has been married to his wife, Hillary, whom he met in college, since 1998 and together, they have two daughters, Jolie and Aubrie.
Read more from Craig Mongeau here.
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