Turning rubble into green gold
At an old house renovation site in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, a short and strong man stood in the pelting rain with no protection, with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his face, watching a crawler fork-lift truck load a huge machine with the rubble from the demolished building.
The machine on its part was churning out 1 cu m sized blocks from its three conveyor belts. The blocks, made of a mixture of clay, lime and sand, reinforcing steel bars, and concrete, were soon ready for use in construction of buildings or roads. In just a few minutes, around 100 sq m of rubble was cleared up and three huge piles of blocks were formed.
“I am turning the rubble stack to a gold mine. I am proud of my business, which can change waste to useful materials and help in recycling,” said Chen Guangbiao, chairman of Jiangsu Huangpu Renewable Resources Utilization Co Ltd, engaged in demolition of old houses, construction of garbage and discarded facilities treatment, and recycling.
Chen told China Business Weekly that his company was helping to clear the dismantled old plants, which covered over 100,000 sq m and generated over 200,000 tons of construction waste.
Traditionally, the residue is often moved to rural areas for use as landfill, in standard 10-ton capacity trucks. Moving the waste would involve 20,000 trips and cost at least 4 million yuan ($585,200) along with the risks of leakage and spilling.
“More important is that the landfill will occupy arable land and often the building debris cannot degrade in a short period of time. Some useful material in it also cannot be reused,” said Chen.
By using Jiangsu Huangpu’s technology and machines the construction waste can often be converted into useful materials, thereby earning good money for the private entrepreneur.
The ordinary mix of clay, lime and sand is sold at 60 to 70 yuan per cu m in the market, while the unit price is only 15 yuan for Jiangsu Huangpu. The recycled reinforcing steel bars and concrete are also much cheaper.
“For the 100,000-sq m site, cleaning work can be finished within two months and all recycled building materials would be removed when the project begins,” said Chen.
Besides earning debris settlement fees from the demolishers and money from purchasers who buy recycled materials, the recycler can also get a subsidy of 10 yuan per sq m from the property developers, who will use the clean land.
Chen declined to reveal the profit margin, highlighting that he is not only doing a promising business but also shouldering the social responsibility to protect the environment.
According to Cheng Zhongfan, professor, School of Civil Engineering under the Southeast University, the strength of recycled building materials is nearly the same as new ones, while the prices are usually 15 percent lower. “Construction waste in China amounts to nearly 2 billion tons every year and this creates huge opportunities for recyclers. Moreover, the sector is promising, given the governmental policies for environmental protection,” he said.
Jiangsu Huangpu, so far, has 300 sets of such construction waste recycling machines and employs around 3,700 engineers, technicians and workers. Chen was ranked by the Hurun Rich List, which is considered the bible of wealth and de-facto Who’s Who of Chinese business, as the 406th wealthiest businessman in China with a personal fortune of 2 billion yuan in 2008.
Born in a poor family in Jiangsu in 1968, Chen spent his childhood without enough food and clothes, while a sister and a brother died of hunger when he was only two.
He decided to make his life different when he was very young and started his first business - that of selling water - at the age of 10. During summer holidays, he fetched water from a well in his village and sold it in the town 2 km away at one fen (the minimum currency unit in China). His earnings of over 4 yuan not only covered his tuition fees of 1.8 yuan, but also that of his neighbor as well.
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