I have said this before, and I'll say it again - The guy that figures out just what to do with the "scrap" that accumulates in his fabrication shop or his outside yard will be a very happy guy at the end of the day.
This is because the cost of having scrap stone hauled from an average fabrication shop on a monthly basis can be anywhere around $500 per month. If there was a way to capitalize on re-using the scrap that's generated from a fabrication shop's production cycle, a fabricator could use 100% of the slabs that they acquire rather than 7% on average.
Just think about it. How many "less than full slab" pieces of otherwise usable stone slabs are just sitting, collecting dust and getting in your way? There's probably (on average) over $1,000 dollars worth of actual usable material sitting in your "inventory" that's not doing anyone any good.
I remember standing in the outside yard of a dear friend of mine that is also a fabricator and looking out over the "sea" of tightly packed wooden pallets - each one stacked to waist height with sink cut outs (the doughnut holes) that probably amounted to over two container loads of "slab-edge."
So, let's see; what was that worth in dollars? How about a quick example to drive my point home about what's sitting out there in your shop or yard that you can use to generate some revenue in these troubled economic times? In this instance, there were pallets crammed into the space of about 3,000 square feet of outdoor open storage space. This equates to around 250 pallets of scrap stone sink hole cutouts that equated to around 75,000 (yes - seventy-five thousand) square feet of scrap.
Now, this is a pretty hefty amount of stone to just "sit on" for grins and giggles! Even if I look at this single example in a more conservative view, my friend had around 9,000 square feet of scrap (approx. 30 pallets with 300 sq. ft. on each pallet) that he was sitting on. This equates to around $72,000 using $8.00 per square foot of "average" costing material. That's 72 thousand reasons to look at actually doing something other than shipping all of this "scrap" material off to a land fill.
A similar experience has helped propel an entirely new business entity that addresses this question and answers the basic statement of "Whoever figures out what to do with all of this scrap - in a cost effective way - will be a very popular company." This same notion has been motivating the partners that own this new company over the last 2 years to come up with a multi-level approach to what to do with the "garbage" and they have done it well.
This new entity is called the "SRS Network," an acronym for Stone Recycling Services; a new company that helps fabricators at the local, regional, and national level, employ multiple means of utilizing their scrap stone that they generate on a daily basis, turning their "garbage" stone (the stuff that would normally go into the dumpster) into real "recovered" revenue for their efforts.
The "network" is the member companies that subscribe to this new service with a monthly or yearly membership fee that opens their access to a national network of other like-minded fabricators who benefit from knowing who has what, and where it is located. SRS offers a way to utilize all aspects of scrap stone to all of its members - nationwide.
What the SRS Network offers is a multi-disciplined approach that channels the entire gambit of scrap stone pieces into various levels of "usability" and provides a conduit for scrap materials to be re-introduced back into the production process.
Think about the various kinds of scrap that you yourself have sitting on your property right now. You have pieces of scrap that can be cut down into something useable, like a piece of splash, or a lavatory top.
The highest level on the "usability scale" is what we call "dimensional" recycled stone product. For example: Your shop has a piece of Juparana Columbo that is 24" tall by 85" long that's left over from a 3' slab job you did over a year ago. This piece of stone (and possibly many others like it) looks at you every time you walk by it, and you always think to yourself when you see it, "If only I had a job for this piece of scrap to get used on. Should I trash it? Naaah, save it for a little."
As a fabricator, being a member of the SRS Network offers you the ability to access the SRS Data Base that lists all of the smaller - less than full slab pieces that are "out there" just waiting to be used on a project. The SRS Network connects members all over the country that need smaller pieces of stone, and gives the members the ability to contact people who have the stone that other fabricators need. SRS takes the logistical challenge and provides cost effective means of getting those less than full slab.
Smaller, rubble-sized pieces that normally go right into the dumpster - things like sink hole cut outs, slab and countertop-end cut offs and various other assorted sizes of "chunkage" that are too small to make into a countertop or a piece of splash - can now be used in the "aggregate" market, stone that is crushed into smaller sized particulate that has multiple uses.
On the "usability scale" the "aggregate" is lower on the totem pole, but still, all of this stuff adds up and it's sum is what people have been after for years - turning "garbage" into a usable product through recycling, or in this case, turning lemons into lemonade - "green" lemonade.
Regardless of what kind of "scrap" natural or engineered stone pieces you have been sitting on for the last few years, SRS Network now offers you a way to turn that "scrap" into "green" - CA$H green that is!
Watch for more info on how you can be more environmentally conscious as a Fabricator through your participation in the SRS Network - turning waste into profits!
Until Next Month - Think green! Best regards and happy fabricating!
Turning Lemons into Lemonade is a topic that is that taught by AZ School of Rock. For more information, contact Kevin M. Padden at www.azschoolofrock.com, send an e-mail at info@azschoolofrock.com or call 480-3099422.
SRS Network (Stone Recycling Services) offers a multi-disciplined approach that channels the entire gamut of scrap stone pieces into various levels of "usability" and provides a conduit for scrap materials to be re-introduced back into the production process.
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