Sunshine Recycling addresses infrastructure needs in South Carolina

Sunshine Recycling, an Orangeburg, South Carolina-based recycling company, is providing heavy highway contractors with recycled crushed aggregate for a number of ongoing bridge construction projects in the state.

Bridge material that is being demolished is brought to Sunshine’s aggregate yard to be processed and recycled into South Carolina Department of Transportation-approved road base material.

“[Owner] Joe [Rich] saw the growth potential in new construction and infrastructure in South Carolina over a decade ago,” Jim Pratt of Sunshine Recycling’s Business Development Department tells The Times and Democrat. “Sunshine contacted heavy highway/bridge contractors and showed them how they could save money and time by removing the old bridge via trucking with flatbed and dump trailers. Sunshine has assisted at least a dozen contractors over the past decade by removing construction and debris [C&D] bridge material.”

Current projects include:

• Charlotte, North Carolina-based Crowder Construction is replacing the bridge on U.S. 301 near the Four Holes Swamp;
• Charlotte, North Carolina-based Zachry Construction is replacing the bridge on S.C. 34 in Newberry County and the bridge on U.S. 378 in Richland County;
• Columbia, South Carolina-based Republic Contracting is replacing a bridge on Main Street in Darlington; and
• Jacksonville, Florida-based Superior Construction is replacing the bridge on Interstate 20 over the Savannah River in both South Carolina and Georgia.

As reported by The Times and Democrat, Sunshine has its own concrete crusher, material screener and telestack in an effort to meet road base material needs for both county and city governments. Pratt adds that recycled concrete also meets the demand from small businesses and homeowners that want an economical way to repair/build roads, parking lots and driveways.

Sunshine’s work has been recognized statewide on local road projects. Orangeburg County earned the “Project of the Year” award in 2013 from the Lower Savannah Council of Governments for its “Paving the Way” project using crushed concrete generated by Sunshine.

As part of that project, brick and concrete from structures the county had demolished were taken to Sunshine to be ground into aggregate, which was later sold back to the county at a discounted rate. The county used the aggregate on its roads.

In addition to Orangeburg County, Bamberg County, Cordova, O’Cain Construction, Palmetto Sitework Services and Porth Contracting Company Inc. have all purchased crushed concrete and asphalt milling for roads and parking lots for their projects in the Midlands, Pratt tells The Times and Democrat.