Matthews-Mint Hill - Carolina Weekly Newspapers

4.854”x12.5” 1/2 pg Vertical for Carolina Weekly
10/19/10
www.matthewsminthillweekly.com
Community
Firm proposes
shingle- recycling plant
in Matthews
by Frank DeLoache
frank@matthewsminthillweekly.com
A Monroe paving company wants to
open the state’s third shingle recycling
plant in Matthews.
Two representatives of Boggs Paving
told the Matthews town board Oct. 11
that the company wants to open the
new operation at the former Hill Sand
& Gravel site at 2168 Stevens Mill
Road. The town board took no action
Oct. 11. The Matthews Planning Board
will consider the new industrial use at
its Oct. 26 meeting, and the town board
expects to discuss and vote on the proposal
at its Nov. 8 meeting.
Commissioners and some in the audience
at the town board meeting peppered
the paving company officials with
questions about the shingle recycling
process, and the question most often
repeated concerned cancer-causing
asbestos.
Boggs will follow all environmental
regulations and test shingles brought to
the recycling center for asbestos, said
Phil Hill, the paving company’s recycling
coordinator. The company disposes of
any shingles containing asbestos by
burying them in an approved landfill following
federal environmental guidelines,
Hill said.
Boggs treats the shingle-recycling
operation as a “green business,” Hill said.
Besides the shingles, company workers
will separate any wood, paper and aluminum
or other metals from each shipment
and send those materials to other
recycling facilities. Before the advent
of shingle-recycling plants, discarded
shingles were filling the area’s landfills,
Hill and Boggs Recycling Manager Mike
Batson said.
Boggs already operates a shingle recycling
facility at its headquarters at 1613
W. Roosevelt Blvd. in Monroe, Hill said
during a public hearing. But the Matthews
site would give the company more
space for storing shingles and put it
closer to Charlotte, the source of most
of the shingles Boggs processes, Hill
said.
The only other shingle-recycling facility
in the state operates in Greenville, N.C.,
and since the process is relatively new,
the Matthews Board of Commissioners
must add that category of business to the
list of uses permitted in heavy industrial,
or I-2, zoning, Planning Director Kathi
Ingrish told commissioners. Hill Sand &
Gravel, the Martin-Marietta site and the
town’s own Public Works yard are the
only three places in Matthews with the
heavy-industrial zoning.
Responding to questions, Hill and
Mike Batson, Boggs’ recycling manager,
assured the board that neighbors are not
likely to know the plant is there or when
it is operating. They said:
• Boggs will only bring in a machine
to grind shingles three or four times a
year. With some adjustments, the same
machine used to grind up tree limbs and
wood can grind up shingles. The rest of
the time, company workers will accept,
test and separately store shipments of
shingles.
• The plant won’t take up much space.
Boggs will install a paved pad where the
grinding machine works when brought
to the site.
• The grinding will take place during
normal daylight working hours, usually
stopping by 6 p.m., Batson said. Besides
the grinding, the engines from front-end
loaders will provide the only other noise
from the plant, Hill said after the meeting.
• Just like its Monroe plant, Boggs will
install misting devices around the grinding
machine to capture any dust created
during the grinding.
Commissioner Nancy Moore asked
the Boggs officials how they handle any
water running off the site. Batson said
the water used to capture the dust evaporates
in the process, and no water will
run off the site. Company employees
sweep and dispose of the dust, Batson
said.
Because some homes and Team
Church sit close to the Hill Sand &
Gravel land, Commissioner Paul Bailey
suggested extending the minimum
buffer between adjacent property owners
and the plant operations from 100
to 150 feet. Hill said that change was
acceptable.
After the meeting, Hill said, “Our
company is extremely forward thinking”
in recycling construction materials
and also the use of “warm-mix asphalt”
on its road projects. The warm-mix process
applies asphalt to roads at about
100 degrees cooler than the normal hotasphalt
operation, which traditionally
heats the material to about 375 degrees,
Hill said. The warm-mix process is better
for Boggs’ employees and the environment,
he said.
“Boggs is really, really interested in
being green,” Hill said. “…We’re hometown
folks.” q
Matthews-Mint Hill Weekly • Oct. 22-28, 2010 • Page 9