Coastal Recycling Services Breaks Ground on C&D Recycling Facility

Coastal Recycling Services, based in Jacksonville, Fla., has begun construction on a new construction and demolition materials recovery facility in Jacksonville. The facility is expected to be complete by July 2011.

The groundbreaking follows roughly three years of permitting and financing. According to Coastal Recycling, the cost of the project will top $11 million, with $4 million coming through a loan from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

“We have confirmed with the SBA that this is one of the largest SBA 504 loans ever approved in the Southeast in the history of the program,” says Kristen Tackett of Florida First Capital Finance Corp., Jacksonville. “We are extremely excited and honored to be able to provide financing that will allow for a major business expansion and job creation right here in the city of Jacksonville.”

According to a Coastal Recycling release, financing was not the only delay in starting the project. Coastal was required to obtain state and local permits to build and operate the new facility. Jacksonville’s “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity” (CON) requires all recycling facilities to recycle a minimum of 60 percent of product brought into the facility once operational, and a minimum of 80 percent of product within 30 months of opening.

“The costs associated with recycling at this level are significant”, says Charlie Latham, co-managing partner of Coastal Recycling. “We are spending substantially more money on specialized recycling equipment because of the city’s aggressive recycling rate requirements. Of course, we support the city’s recycling goals and look forward to contributing to the state’s new recycling goal of 75 percent by 2020,” says Latham.

The facility will include a solar power system capable of providing about 10 percent of the recycling equipment’s power needs. “Infinity Design Builders, Inc. is proud to be a member of Coastal Recycling Service’s team. We’re very excited about this project because it contributes to the goals of sustainability in Jacksonville and the state of Florida,” says Michael Bruce, CEO of Infinity Design Builders, the designer and builder of the facility. “We expect the facility to be completed in July,” he adds.

“Coastal made a conscious decision not to provide hauling services,” says Bob Malouin, co-managing partner of Coastal Recycling, “There are plenty of first-rate haulers in town; our intent is to work with them to bring in, process and recover as much waste as possible. Our goal is to provide complete customer satisfaction to all haulers in the area, and to provide LEED level support for green-building and LEED projects,” he says.

Once separated, recycled product is prepared and shipped to processing facilities and end-users throughout the Southeast. “We are still seeking relationships with end users in our market, and will continue to do so as we prepare to open our facility,” says Latham.

Updates are available at www.coastalrecycles.com or www.jaxrecycles.com.