AMID CONTINUED CONCERN about the large amount of waste Barbados is generating daily, C.O. Williams Construction Limited is in the process of eliminating all waste from its main quarry operation.
It will also mean increased revenue for the comapny known for its road construction.
Earlier this year, C.O.Williams Construction announced its establishment of a new facility called a “wash plant” at its Lears, St Michael headquarters, which was allowing it to process crushed quarry material into sand. It has been selling that product since then.
Now, based on information just released by the plant’s supplier – Irish company CDE Global, and the Barbadian company’s general manager Neil Weekes, C.O.Williams Construction is looking to maximise the recycling process even further, including producing material for use by the agriculture sector. Water recycling is also part of the process.
Documented information on the venture revealed that the construction firm was operating a 250 tonnes per hour crushing plant processing coral limestone at Lears.
This produced more than 35 000 tonnes of aggregate monthly. The company also produces more than 18 000 tonnes of asphalt annually.
Previously, the large amount of fine material produced “was stockpiled as a waste product on site”, officials explained, because they had no useful purpose for it.
“The waste from the crushing operations was an ongoing concern for us and . . . required that we look at a wash plan to see if we could recover any material which could be used either as construction sands or in our own asphalt production,” Weekes said.
Ever since commissioning the plant, the company has been working on reducing waste stockpiles of about 500 000 tonnes of fine material processed in the quarry.
The facility at Lears includes a mobile washing plant with a “sand washing system” and “closed circuit water recycling”.
Weekes said they would now be able to “generate value from existing waste stockpiles and ensure that in future we are able to deal with . . . the material from our crushing operations in an efficient manner”.