Local Company Recycles Granite Waste

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (WJBK) -- Kitchen upgrades are a popular home improvement project and many people want granite countertops. However, when those countertops are made, a lot of granite actually goes to waste. A local business owner has found a way to recycle it.

A typical work day for David Popp involves stamping tons of solid stone. He's the owner of EcoGranite in Farmington Hills, the first stone recycling business in metro Detroit and one of the first in the country.

Popp turns leftover granite from home construction projects into pavers, thin stone veneer and even gravel.

"It's stones brought from all over the world for its natural beauty to the United States, and then it's made into a countertop," he said. "About 40 percent of it just on a countertop production goes back to a landfill."

However, Popp figured out how to recycle it and reuse it instead. He said he couldn't stand to all this beautiful stone going to waste. It took him eight years to develop the right technique using heavy machinery to cut the granite into various perfect shapes.

His pavers start at $3.85 a square foot.

The company even recycles very small pieces. They grind them up into different grades of gravel.

"Everything that comes into the shop we try to make into a useable product," Popp explained.

So, where does all the heavy granite come from? Popp hauls tons and tons of it away for local companies free of charge in exchange for the use of the material.

He said granite is about three times stronger than a standard brick paver. The natural stone doesn't degrade and should last forever.

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Local Company Recycles Granite Waste