Ryan Murray’s most recent addition to the fleet is a brand-new Hitachi 220 wheel loader purchased through All Island Equipment in West Babylon, N.Y.
At only 18 years old, Ryan Murray started an excavation business with just a Bobcat, a pickup truck and a motivation to work hard. That desire to succeed still inspires and has paid off quite nicely — both for him and his local environment.
R.J. Murray Enterprises, located in Kings Park, N.Y., on Long Island, is the leading provider of concrete recycling services, as well as organic materials and products, in Nassau and Suffolk counties. From its five-acre yard, the 10-person company reprocesses hundreds of thousands of tons of concrete, brick, asphalt and dirt for future use, at the same time keeping what would otherwise be waste materials out of local landfills.
"As one of the biggest concrete recyclers on Long Island, we mostly supply to municipalities and landscapers, at wholesale and retail," said Murray, the now 35-year-old CEO of the company. "We are a concrete-crushing facility, too, meaning we handle concrete, asphalt and brick. Beyond that, we have sand and stone on hand and supply topsoil for landscapers."
R.J. Murray's biggest suppliers of material are asphalt paving companies that bring in old concrete and asphalt, among other rubble. For instance, landscapers and masonry contractors that dig up old material, such as brick or concrete from a patio project, will deposit it in Murray's yard where his people will crush the waste and make a special recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) base that those contractors can then use to rebuild the patio.
"All of my customers pick up the same materials that they dump in one way or another," he said. "They drop off what they can no longer use and pick up what they need on the way out."
Murray added that his business also produces New York State-spec materials for road projects in the area.
"When we do big commercial projects, we will bring in a couple thousand yards of custom-made materials," he said. "Believe me, when we do that, we maximize every square foot of our facility."
New Hitachi Wheel Loader Joins the Fleet
To put those materials where they are needed around Murray's business, he employs 15 pieces of equipment, including wheel loaders, excavators and dump trucks.
Ryan Murray (L) of R.J. Murray Enterprises and Gary Wade of All Island Equipment.
His most recent addition to the fleet is a brand-new Hitachi 220 wheel loader purchased through All Island Equipment in West Babylon, N.Y. Murray's crew employs it as an everyday-use machine for stockpiling and screening materials, like topsoil, and for loading trucks and depositing rubble onto conveyor belts.
Coincidentally, Murray had been thinking of getting rid of a loader when Gary Wade, owner of All Island Equipment, approached him about buying the Hitachi 220. Murray has bought several other machines from Wade over the years and has come to rely on his expertise.
"All Island Equipment is a small, family-owned company and their commitment to customer service and satisfaction is over and above everybody else," he said. "Gary just dropped off the new Hitachi and said, ‘Use it.'
"My guys fell in love with the loader because of its great visibility and power. The price was right, and it was a big savings for a better machine. Now, I'm in talks with Gary to buy another two pieces of equipment. It's all about the business and going with an equipment company that offers great service and a quick turnaround on getting parts. Gary hasn't let me down yet."
A Pivot Toward Recycling
In the first several years of its operation, R.J. Murray Enterprises was known primarily for its many excavating services for residential developers, industrial customers and large commercial contractors. The company had become expert in a range of duties, including site clearing, foundation excavations, drainage and sanitary work and grading.
But in recent years, Murray said, the decision was made to take the business in a different direction, one that has made the operation much more specialized.
"I started excavating, but within the last six years we have decided to concentrate heavily on recycling. So, I don't do very much excavation work or onsite work now, like demolition — everything is performed here in my yard, unless it's a big project and someone orders, say, 6,000 yards of topsoil and needs machines there to spread it."
It has proven to be a timely decision on Murray's part.
Over the past several years, concrete recycling has become an increasingly popular way to utilize aggregate left behind when structures or roadways are demolished. In the past, this rubble was simply disposed into landfills, but with more attention being paid to environmental concerns, concrete recycling allows reuse of the rubble while also keeping construction costs down.
R.J. Murray also plays a critical role in developing organic, earth-friendly solutions to the region's environmental challenges. At the Kings Park facility, organic materials are mixed together to create compost and compost blends that are then available for retail and wholesale.
Murray's onsite transfer station also saves unwanted waste materials from going into landfills and provides an environmentally sound answer to Long Island's debris problem.
"We feel good about our commitment in turning this waste into product of exceptional quality, as well as the customer service we offer," he said. "Using only our best materials, we directly control each step of production, a fact that makes the difference between adequate results and exceptional performance."
R.J. Murray Enterprises is located at 131 Old Northport Road in Kings Park, N.Y. For more information, call 631/544-4400 or visit www.rjmurrayenterprises.com. CEG
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the business for more than 40 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he moved on to gain experience at two other publications before becoming a real estate and special features writer and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. His hobbies include collecting history books, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers and caring for his three dogs and one cat.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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