Trading In Cows For Construction Debris, Garbage | Westborough's E.L. Harvey & Sons helps feed insatiable need for materials in Asia
PHOTO/EILEEN KENNEDY
PHOTO/EILEEN KENNEDY
Ben and Ellen Harvey, two members of the family that runs E.L. Harvey & Sons. The company is planning a major expansion in Hopkinton that includes three buildings. The project is waiting on DEP approval.
Hosting a landfill and hauling commercial trash was intended as supplemental business for the E.L. Harvey family farm in Westborough many decades ago, but trash recycling and disposal turned out to be more lucrative than selling milk.
In 1971, after years of trash as a side business, the family sold its herd of cows to focus solely on trash, and they’ve never second-guessed that decision.
And why should they since they’ve turned E.L. Harvey & Sons into a $50 million a year business and the 32nd largest recycling and waste removal company in the country.
“We started as farmers. That was all pasture and the boys used to milk the cows in the other field,” said James Harvey, pointing from the window of the company’s executive office building toward several of the 50,000-square-foot-plus buildings. He is a company co-owner, its CEO and treasurer and a son of the founder, E.L. Harvey.
Tons Of Tonnage
These days its Westborough property on Hopkinton Road has several large buildings where paper, wood, plastics, glass, metals and construction and demolition debris are cleaned up, then shipped out to companies that recycle the materials.
Despite taking in 600 tons a day in waste, with additional tonnage in paper and recyclables allowed at its Westborough location, company officials knew years ago that the business was starting to reach its saturation point and began thinking about expansion, according to co-owner Ben Harvey, a third generation family member.
And when it builds its new facility, next to its old one in Hopkinton, it will be able to bring in 500 tons more a day, the Harveys said. They’ve already broken ground for the $22 million, three-building waste and recycling facility, but they still need an additional permit from the state.
“There is an insatiable demand for many of these materials from countries like China and India, which cannot keep up with the demand within their own countries,” said Ben Harvey, co-owner, executive vice president and a grandson of E.L. Harvey. A recent truckload of scrap metal was headed to New Jersey, where it would be loaded onto a ship bound for China.
The ceaseless demands for materials around the world and an increasing emphasis on recycling and reusing here in the United States are fueling the company’s growth.
The popularity of green initiatives like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, certification is also helping them grow. The LEED standards include requirements that site materials from old buildings or renovations be recycled.
“I think there is much more recognition of the importance of recycling now, but for us, even in the 40s, recycling has always been a way of life,” Ben Harvey said. As they moved into rubbish removal and hosted Westborough’s burning dump, they found removing much of the waste stream was economically beneficial for them.
And with so many years in the business, the Harveys have seen many things, like recycling, come and go in popularity.
When they burned Westborough’s rubbish, mattresses could also be discarded. The company stripped the mattresses, recycled the cloth coverings and cotton innards as well as the metal coils. Recycling those items was more economical than burning everything and discarding the leftovers.
And mattresses will soon be another item the state bans from existing landfills, just as it previously banned construction debris. That list will likely include carpets, gypsum board and asbestos roofing shingles before too long.
As the list of banned products grows, it will also help the company continue to grow and its Hopkinton project will allow it to keep up with demand.
In the late 1990s, the Hopkinton Economic Growth Committee came to the company and asked it to buy a 40-acre town parcel and build a recycling facility on it, accord to James Harvey.
The land borders the company’s other industrially zoned land and the Massa-chusetts Turnpike abuts the parcel on the other side. It was initially zoned as residential land, but it was not a very desirable parcel for developers with those abutters, he said.
Although it took more than six years to accomplish the zoning change and receive the necessary permits, the company held a groundbreaking ceremony for the project a few weeks ago.
The expansion includes three buildings: one for construction and demolition debris; one for regular recycling and a third that will be a maintenance garage for the company’s trucks.
The project has not been without opponents though, despite the town wanting the company to expand.
The company must still get state approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection for the recycling buildings and how it will manage its storm water runoff.
“There’s a lot of unknowns about the future, but no matter what comes up, we’ll continue to be resilient and deal with what we have to deal with,” said Ben Harvey.
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