Every aggregate operation uses conveyor belts. And every belt has only so much life in it. Historically, once a belt is deemed done, it鈥檒l find its way to a scrap pile somewhere on the site. Eventually, a collection of belts might be landfilled. But until that time arrives, belts live on as waste 鈥� and as eyesores 鈥撀燼t active operations.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always been you take the old belt off, you put the new one on and the old belt goes in the backyard,鈥� says Greg Failes of Indiana-based US Aggregates. 鈥淭hat accumulates, and then you have a bunch of conveyor belt taking up room and making a mess on your property.鈥�
In recent years, though, some producers are productively offloading their scrap belts differently: They鈥檙e recycling them. 鈥淲ith the world going in a green direction, we want to recycle all of the different products that we use,鈥� Failes says. 鈥淲e want to be responsible with how we dispose of belts rather than send them to a landfill. That鈥檚 kind of the big driving force behind it.鈥� Producers like US Aggregates have long recycled scrap materials.