A leader in the recovery and re-manufacturing of primary resources, ResourceCo extracts maximum value from materials otherwise destined for landfill. What does that mean to landscapers? A company which can not only make construction jobs far more environmentally friendly, but considerably more profitable.
ResourceCo provides complete material supply, transport and disposal services for site remediation, rehabilitation, and development projects.
With more than 30 years’ experience in earthworks projects, the company has strong relationships with Australia’s largest bulk-fill producers and movers, and partners with a national network of government and Tier 1 companies to deliver landfill diversion and material-supply solutions to a diverse customer base.
Landscape Contractor magazine spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting with Deane Reid, State Manager, Victoria, for Soil Reuse & Recycling at ResourceCo, and it became obvious that, although ResourceCo can handle the biggest jobs this country has on offer, it’s also capable of – and ready to – make serious contributions to lifting the efficiency and cost effectiveness of some of the smaller works which are happening all day every day.
Recover and reuse
“ResourceCo operates nationwide, handling a diverse range of material – diverting it from landfill, and, in doing so, producing quality products for supply to the market,” Deane explained. “The company identified it was moving a lot of soil, initially through its bulk operations, that had potential to be turned into quality garden soil or made available for use in civil projects.”
Instead of this potentially valuable asset being used as bulk fill, or worse, landfilled, ResourceCo has leveraged its 30-year pedigree of value adding to materials to help a wider range of customers resoil with recovered and enhanced soils. ResoureCo has put considerable resources behind recycling a wide range of materials to ensure their value is maximised and applied in a higher-order use. It’s a principle the company was founded on; refining waste materials across construction, demolition, commercial and industrial waste streams, and even tyres, re-manufacturing them into quality products.
“When material comes to us, we seek to maximise its highest-order potential. We ask ourselves, ‘Would this material benefit from sorting? Screening? Crushing? Added nutrients?’,” said Deane. “Our advanced resource-recovery processes prioritise removing the recoverables – glass, brick, rock, metals plastics and timber.
“As a company we have a capability to recycle or reuse all of this material, minimising or even eliminating landfilling at every opportunity.
“Our recovered soil goes through a screening process and is then blended with different additives to make it into a medium which meets the AS449 standard – the standard commercial-grade soil for most civil projects.
Efficient
Deane went on to explain the incredibly tightly controlled screening and recycling processes ResourceCo has available, and the list and detail was staggering. Not only is a great deal of excellent material rejuvenated and turned to good use instead of being landfilled, but the company is often able to offer very cost-effective systems to clients.
Deane gave us an outline of a recent case.
“We’ve just finished a project for a company called Landscape Plus in Caulfield,” he remembered. “They were developing a retirement home and hospital and had a heavily compacted area with no organic matter that needed to be upgraded to an up-to-date garden bed. We were able to supply what we call ‘backloading’. We collected the compacted soil on the site, moved it to our Brooklyn facility, treated it, and we took fresh soil back.
“We did that on repeat for about a month until the ground was useful and productive again.”
The soil being returned to the Caulfield site was what ResourceCo calls ‘RM blend’ – Reclaimed Material blend. It’s the company’s ‘standard’ garden soil, suitable for horticultural and lawn areas.
All shapes and sizes
While ResourceCo generally caters to the civil market, it does supply products through a range of different distributors, including garden-supply centres and operators with smaller trucks supplied directly as a wholesaler.
“For us, the notion of resoiling with ResourceCo is a vast proposition. From a garden bed or community park to rehabilitating a quarry or transforming a landscape, we’re agile enough to work with a wide range of customers,” said Deane
There was little doubt ResourceCo – and Deane – were ready to take on just about any challenge which confronted them.
The customer still comes first
Historically, soil-recycling companies take in what’s referred to in the recycling industry as ‘cleanfill’ or sandy loam. It’s a relatively clean, easy-to-deal-with product. Deane pointed out that ResourceCo, thanks to its huge investment in technology and resources, was better positioned than most.
“One big advantage for ResourceCo is our versatility,” Deane continued. “A customer may have four or five different material types they need to dispose of – cleanfill, soils, mixed fill, concrete, rock, bitumen and so on – and instead of having to find different companies to deal with each of those materials, ResourceCo can accept all of that material. We’re a genuine ‘one-stop-drop’ offering. No matter the material we receive, we prioritise reuse, recycling and value adding as much as possible.
“We also offer backloading to maximise efficiency with our soil, rubble and aggregate products. Customers can drop off unwanted or unneeded material and backload our wide range of made-to-specification rubble and aggregate products.
“We pride ourselves on our ability to be versatile. With versatility comes efficiency. Resoiling with ResourceCo is just one part of an integrated service that we’re constantly adapting to meet the evolving needs of clients.”
See more of ResourceCo’s huge range of products and services at resourceco.com.au.