Old plastics, new life

MILLERSBURG — The hailstorms that pounded Boone County in mid-March practically forced Gary Ryan to open his new plastic recycling business.

The building for the business was under construction — it had no electricity, and he had only bought a few pieces of equipment the business would need.

But it was planting season, and he was concentrating on his farm.

The hail caused roughly $400 million in damage to homes and vehicles in Columbia and the surrounding area.

And that’s when Matthew Harline, district coordinator of the Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District, called Ryan.

Harline works to connect Columbia businesses that produce large amounts of waste with people, or businesses, who recycle. He asked Ryan if he was able to recycle vinyl siding, and Ryan said he could.

“This is a pretty exciting business start-up,” Harline said. “There aren’t that many companies in our area that are actually involved in making a product out of plastics.”

Ryan left fliers at the city landfill telling people they could bring their unusable siding to his business on State Route J, and Harline told businesses that were cleaning up after the hailstorm about opportunities to recycle.

Tri-Star Construction Co. in Fulton was one company that chose to take damaged vinyl siding to Ryan’s business, Ryan Enterprises.

The landfill was two miles down the road from where Tri-Star was working, but Tri-Star opted to take the extra 13 miles out to Ryan’s business.

“I hated to take it to the city dump when I could recycle it,” said Wendell Cunningham, owner of Tri-Star.

The company hauled about 15 tons of damaged vinyl siding — the equivalent of seven households’ worth of trash for one year — to Ryan’s business.

“It actually cost me quite a bit more to recycle it because I had to buy a dump trailer,” Cunningham said. But to him, it was worth it. “It was just better for everybody.”

With planting season almost over, in May, Ryan hooked up electricity to his building, bought necessary equipment and began the process of recycling the damaged siding.

Plastic possibilities

When Ryan began setting up his recycling business, he didn’t imagine he would be grinding up vinyl siding.

“All I wanted was a fence post that would last a long time,” Ryan said.

Ryan, 53, and his brother bought a farm on State Route J in 1973 and named it Shadybrook Farm. They grow corn and raise cattle and hogs.

Ryan’s original concept for his business stemmed from his dislike of wooden fence posts, which had to be replaced every 10 to 15 years.

To him, the solution was simple: “Plastic was always a good choice,” he said.

There are other materials that are used in making fence posts, but Ryan said plastic ones are relatively cheap and last a long time.

Ryan cited properties of plastic that make it an attractive solution: It’s durable, it’s easy to come by, and it gives people a reason to recycle.

“The great thing about this is, all these products were going to be thrown away,” Ryan said.

“I leave the door open in the morning and it just appears,” he said. He said he usually knows who has brought it, but not always. Those who make the trek out to his farm, which is about a 20-minute drive from downtown Columbia, have found out about his recycling efforts mostly by word of mouth. Ryan welcomes any business or individual who wants to drop off recyclable plastic.

The plastics range from empty soda bottles to large plastic packing crates, which cannot be recycled anywhere else in the mid-Missouri area because of their size. Ryan has a machine large enough to do it.

Ryan begins the recycling process by grinding the plastics into 3/8-inch fragments. He melts the pieces, adds coloring to prevent deterioration from exposure to the sun, then pours the melted plastic into molds.

Ryan has produced several other items besides fence posts. He’s made parking stops and landscaping timber and packaged plastic shrink wrap for use in making alternative decking lumber.

“A true recycler is someone that takes plastic in its current form and turns it into a valuable product,” he said. Ryan prides himself on the fact that the plastic that arrives at his door literally gets turned into reusable products.

WHAT’S AHEAD

Although Ryan has been turning out reusable plastic products since May, it took him nearly three years to get to that point.

Ryan was awarded three grants to help start his business — one from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, one from Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management and one from the Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority.

“You’re seeing a work in progress here,” Ryan said. He is putting the finishing touches on the building 2½ miles south of Millersburg. He has done most of the construction himself, but he still splits his time between his recycling business and his farm.

Even though Ryan started with one idea of what he wanted to make, he sees a lot of potential for his business and is flexible about what he makes — as long as it’s out of recyclable plastic. But he recognizes that for recycling to work, people have to be willing to recycle their plastic.

“Society has to decide it wants to recycle,” Ryan said.