With Earth Day on Friday, people are thinking about ways they can improve the planet. Incorporated Industries of Bloomfield has been doing that for years, saving tons of waste from the landfill.
You don’t have to move mountains to make a difference for our planet, but at Incorporated Industries, they are indeed moving small mountains.
“Everything here is all reprocessed. It doesn't just sit and become toxic,” Lauren Ouellette, the marketing and office manager said.
At the site in Bloomfield, there are mounds of products such as topsoil, wood waste, chips and other organic material.
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“Whatever comes in our place, leaves; it doesn't stay,” Ken Ouellette, owner, and operator, said.
Ouellette started his business back in 1976. The original gig was sewer and water installations and repairs. Then he saw a need.
“Millions of tons are just wasted in landfills and dumped anywhere in the wetlands,” Ouellette said.
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So he dug into the idea of recycling earth products.
“Our customers needed a place to dump,” he said. “So we expanded, bought a site, and got it approved to be a dumpsite," Ken Ouellette said.
“He just started taking in the things that he was trying to get rid of himself, and he started putting them into products that he could sell,” Lauren Ouellette said.
Much like the mounds, the recycling program grew.
“Concrete blacktop, roof shingles, wood waste; we're keeping the material out of the wetlands and into construction jobs, back where they came from,” Ken Ouellette said.
Industries and even homeowners across the tri-state area bring material to the site.
“It comes from different companies, landscapers and large construction companies,” Lauren Ouellette said.
There are 350 customers that regularly drop waste at the site.
"A lot of it ends up on the road or in people's gardens,” Lauren Ouellette said. “We'll do a lot of work for large corporations. If they want to topsoil, we reprocess our topsoil.”
Ken Ouellette mentioned that about 50 thousand tons a year are spared from the landfill.
"I’d just like to see other guys get into it and make the world a better place,” he said.
