Refurbishments and new construction greener thanks to Cherry.

Cherry is making it easier for Galveston County businesses to recycle deconstruction waste. The Houston-based recycling and demolition company has just opened its fourth recycling center—which is situated in Hitchcock, Texas.

The new 12-acre Hitchcock Recycling Center, located at 5402 Highway 6, accepts concrete, asphalt, residential composition asphalt shingles and tires for recycling. This recycling center also pays for discarded concrete.

Cherry also accepts and recycles tires at its 616 Almeda Road Recycling Center in Houston. Its other Houston-area recycling centers are located at 6019 Crawford Road and 4601 Holmes Road.

Overall, Cherry’s recycling centers process more than a million tons of concrete and asphalt and thousands of tons of steel every year. As such, the company is considered one of the biggest recyclers in the state of Texas.

By adding the new Hitchcock Recycling Center, Cherry is well positioned to serve those customers south of Nasa Road 1 to Galveston. With more Cherry recycling centers strategically located throughout this area of Texas, customers save time and transportation costs because deconstruction waste doesn’t have to be trucked to other remote recycling centers or landfills.

“Our Hitchcock Recycling Center helps us better serve customers by bringing our operations closer to them,” says Leonard Cherry, president of Cherry. “Overall, recycling preserves the natural environment by reducing the amount of concrete, asphalt, residential composition asphalt shingles and tires that are dumped in landfills and other unwanted places.”

Cherry explains that an increasing number of businesses today are green friendly because they recognize that recycled concrete and asphalt are suitable materials for new roadways and other construction projects. An added bonus is that when contractors use these types of recycled materials in new construction, it conserves natural resources by reducing the amount of virgin materials that must be mined.

At 12 acres in size, Hitchcock is Cherry’s second largest recycling facility. It is capable of producing 600 tons of TexDot Flex/Base concrete (used in building roadways and highways to the specifications of the Texas Department of Transportation), 400 tons of 3 X 5-inch concrete and 1,000 tons of 1 ¾-inch asphalt daily. With the addition of the Hitchcock facility, Cherry’s combined daily production at its four recycling centers is 5,000 tons of TexDot Flex/Base, 1,500 tons of 3 X 5-inch concrete and 5,000 tons of 1 ¾-inch asphalt.

Locating a recycling facility in Hitchcock also is a good match for new construction now underway and anticipated growth in Galveston County, according to Don Gartman, president of Galveston County Economic Alliance.

“Post Hurricane Ike, we’ve seen significant refurbishment of existing facilities, new development and an increased number of inquiries about business expansion in Galveston County, especially in Hitchcock. Texas’ vibrant economy and favorable tax rates are helping fuel this new interest,” Gartman explains. “Growth is likely to come from petrochemical, manufacturing and retail businesses. And, frequently, building these new facilities means that older facilities must be demolished in order to make way.”

The need for more recycling centers is evident because building-generated waste is on the rise in the U.S. In 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that approximately 164,000 million tons of building-generated waste is generated in the U.S. annually, of which 9 percent is construction waste, 38 percent is renovation waste and 53 percent is demolition debris.

Cherry began its operations nearly 60 years ago as a house moving company and eventually expanded into demolition and recycling activities. During the last few years, the company has focused on expanding its recycling operations. Underscoring Cherry’s continuing shift into the environmental arena is the fact that 50 percent of its gross volume came from demolition in 2006; today more than 65 percent of its gross volume is due to recycling.

Cherry adds that his company is committed to its environmental business approach because it knows the recycling of concrete, asphalt, steel and tires is profitable. “And, it’s simply the right thing to do as a socially responsible company,” he says.

The company’s demolition crews provide much of the concrete and asphalt feedstock for its recycling operations by demolishing industrial, commercial and residential structures and removing infrastructure, such as highways, streets, bridges and runways. Other parts of the company then transport these materials to its recycling centers for processing.

Cherry’s wide-ranging resources and financial strength, coupled with one of the largest fleets of specialized equipment and trucks in the Gulf Coast, position it to handle projects of nearly any size in more than half of the United States.