By Elio Gugliotti, Editor
Patrick Grasso, a principal of Urban Mining Northeast, gives a tour of the company’s plant on Breault Road in Beacon Falls on May 5. –ELIO GUGLIOTTI
BEACON FALLS At the end of Breault Road, after the pavement turns to dirt, there’s a facility that is making a one-of-a-kind product: Pozzotive.
Pozzotive is a finely ground glass powder that can be used as a pozzolan to replace up to 50% of the cement in concrete. Urban Mining Northeast, which is based in New Rochelle, N.Y., makes Pozzotive at the plant on Breault Road through a patented process from recycled glass collected at municipal recovery facilities. The process sorts out the debris and removes the ceramics from the glass then refines it into a sand-like substance.
By Steve Barlow, Republican-American
Urban Mining CT owners Louis Grasso Jr., left, and his uncle, Patrick, stand in front of the ball mill at their facility in Beacon Falls. -STEVE BARLOW/REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
BEACON FALLS The jelly jar tossed into the recycling bin last week might become part of a concrete bridge in the future.
A new facility that recently opened on Breault Road takes the recycled glass collected by municipalities and changes it into a white, powdery material that can be mixed into cement, which can then be used for everything from roads to bridges to sidewalks.
Not only does it make the cement more durable, the material, known as Pozzotive, prevents discarded glass from clogging landfills and reduces greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.