Article written by: Cindy Grahl, editor, Builders Exhange the magazine

Making the Good Earth Better!

   When Mel Kurtz started selling topsoil from his farm in 1948, he didn't know his family business would grow into such a widely based company, a supplier of diverse industrial and landscaping necessities from the beginning of a project, say by providing construction fill or hauling demolition waste, to the end of it, by providing pavers, plants and ponds.  It had to, accoring to son John Kurtz — he had seven kids and had to create enough business to support all of them and enough areas for each to specialize in.. On the industrial side, that includes construction fill, sand and aggregates as well as removing and recycling demolition waste material. 

     Kurtz Bros.' expansion came largely in the area of salvaging natural, construction and industrial materials and reusing them to create a variety of product lines and services.  One of the company's biggest growth areas, for instance, and one that shows its proactive stance in the industry, is in recylcing spent foundry sand for construction  fill. It is estimated that 80% of byproducts from foundries go to waste in landfills, some $125 million worth a year, but that is beginning to change, and largely due to Kurtz Bros. efforts. The use of recycled products such as foundry sand can reduce costs in these noney-conscious times, and are being increasingly accepted - the result of a massive educational effort - as they are proven to meet high performance standards.  Foundry sand, used in metal casting, has been shown to be "cleaner than dirt," says John Kurtz, that is, than native farm soil and commercial potting soil.  Spent foundry sand can be recycled, and is being recycled, by Kurtz Bros., Inc. into construction fill, road subbase, flowable fill, pipe bedding and other products. It also is easy to grade, provides excellent drainage and saves money. But builders, engineers and architects need proof that products work as they should, says Kurtz.  "It is nothing new, just sand," he says, "and it has excellent engineering properties. It works!"

How it Began

     Kurtz Bros. got into making synthetic soils using foundry sand and other recycled materials in a roundabout way: many of its sites were on the land that became the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and the parks' takeover forced the company to seek out a new direction.  It got involved with Dr. Harry Hoitink at the Ohio Agricultural Reseach and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster. OARDC is involved in the testing and analysis of Kurtz Bros.' new soil ideas.

Kurtz Bros. has worked with the Ford Motor Comapany's Cleveland Casting Plant to reuse over 5 million tons of foundry sand, a huge cost savings to Ford, recycling them into customized soil blends.  "A quarter of a million tons come out of Cleveland Casting yearly," says Kurtz.  "What do you do with it? We make lemons out of lemonade, and we put our two problems together - the need to use waste products and the need to develop high-functioning new products- to solve each other." The result: specialized end products from more than 25 foundries in the area.

     New benchmarks based on extensive testing were put out by the Ohio EPA a decade ago to allow this, under policy 400.007. Ohio is the home of the nations's largest number of foundries, and this is the country's most progressive such policy, says Kurtz.  The policy allowed Kurtz Bros. to be granted the first PTI, or permit to install, UNRESTRICTED - a key word- topsoil blends using the Ford byproducts.

Along the Highway

The reclaimed sand's effectiveness and safety in products for highway construction is being demonstrated; the Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Turnpike Commission are now using the by-product, saving taxpayer money. The OTC has used more than 150,000 tons of it, according to the OEPA protocals, over the past two years, including supporting the new Turnpike bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley, a $51 million project handled by Trumbull Corp., Pittsburgh, and National Engineering and Contracting, Strongsville, completed in 2004. Kurtz Bros. supplied 58,000 tons of foundry sand fot he 450 ft-by 55 ft terraced embankment.

Recycled Construction Waste

Foundry sand aside, Kurtz Bros. Inc. is committed to other kinds of recycling as well.  It's estimated, for instance, that from 20% to 40% of the material in our landfills is from construction waste. Kurtz Bros. is involved in reducing this amount as well. It recycles materials from demolition and construction sites, renting containers or accepting delivered materials, and taking asphalt, brick, concrete, wood debris, and so on, with the ability to capture ferrous metals for recycling.