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Newsletter 2005 issue 1 |
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TrueRide Tweaks,* Reduces Scrap
TrueRide, a Duluth company that designs and constructs skateboarding parks, would like to have its raw materials going into a funbox* rather than the Dumpster.
“My desk looks over the Dumpster. I can see it right now—it’s full,” commented Greg Benson, owner of TrueRide. “I ask myself ‘How do we reduce that? How do we put less stuff in there?’”
The company should feel stoked.* It has made several improvements to reduce waste, including starting two new businesses.
Wanting more than an exchange
Benson was signed up as a Materials Exchange user, listing several scrap materials. He had calls from people who needed small quantities, one time, from what he’d listed. What he wanted was someone who could use his scrap materials on a consistent basis. Unable to find that arrangement, Benson did a 180* and found ways to reduce waste and developed new uses for some of the scrap.
Benson knew the company would be more efficient by generating less scrap to begin with. The company looked at its operation and found ways to cut waste by:
- Purchasing materials at more optimal sizes,
- Re-engineering products to decrease waste and
- Nesting little parts in with big parts when cutting out patterns with a CNC router.
These steps cut TrueRide’s waste, eliminating one 30-cubic yard Dumpster per month. But, Benson still saw one full Dumpster.
New businesses out of scrap
To further cut scrap waste, TrueRide started two new companies. The more successful spin-off business, Epicurean Cutting Surfaces, makes cutting boards from scrap wood fiber composite laminate.
Benson knew that the laminate material had been used for years to make professional grade cutting surfaces, but these weren’t available at the retail level. Now, TrueRide’s scrap turns into high-end, consumer cutting boards, sold in over 1,000 retail stores. The product is so successful that Epicurean has to use new material as well as TrueRide’s scrap to make the cutting boards.
“This product developed because we had this waste,” Benson said.
Benson’s fledging business, Loll Designs, uses TrueRide’s high-density polyethylene (HDPE) scrap to make lawn furniture. The product can only be priced competitively if scrap, not new, material is used. Benson plans to reuse 8.5 tons of scrap HDPE this year. The lawn furniture will start selling this season at stores in the Duluth area.
Materials exchange
“We have scrap plywood. If anyone needs it on a regular basis, we’d like to give it to them.” Benson added, “We could even cut shapes out for them.”
*Link to skateboard lingo.
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