Roll-Off Business Evolves Into Grimes Systems Recycling

Grimes Systems, located in Frederick, MD, is fairly new to the recycling business. Owner and entrepreneur Jim Grimes has been involved with recycling concrete and other materials for only the past two years, but his 42-year background in other related businesses brought him to where he is today. A couple of years ago, Grimes spotted an old junkyard and thought it would make a good site for a recycling company. From the humble beginnings as a 6-acre (2.4 ha), old automobile salvage yard, the site was soon transformed into a recycling yard. That was the beginning of Grimes Systems and its recycling business. &#8220;I hired an outside environmental firm to assist me in the cleanup of years of build up of contaminated soils in the area,&#8221; said owner Jim Grimes. &#8220;We rebuilt the buildings, replaced all the fences and blacktopped 90 percent of the ground we&#8217;re using today. This has been the base of operations for my raw container business, as well as my towing operation. And we now grind and recycle concrete, blocks, brick and some asphalt, in wintertime, and wood products. We grind it [wood products] into materials used for bedding animals as well as playground cover.&#8221; Grimes decided to get into the recycling arena after working in the roll-off business. Roll-offs are the containers that are sent to job sites and used by contractors to discard of construction debris. The construction debris is then taken to a landfill. He witnessed firsthand that contractors taking concrete and other types of materials to a landfill were charged fees of anywhere from $600 to $1,000 per container. &#8220;I felt that that was a waste. So I bought this crusher and started to crush materials to reuse as aggregate.&#8221; The crusher is a Metrotrak built by BL-Pegson. The machine is a track model 24 by 44. Grimes mentioned that most of the products are brought in through his own container business. However, the wood product comes from manufacturing firms that fabricate structural materials. The concrete comes from the municipality, as well as contractors who are replacing sidewalks, curb and gutter, or buildings that the company has demolished. The company&#8217;s primary customers for these materials are local contractors. &#8220;It&#8217;s excellent for roadbeds but farmers use it for pads under buildings,&#8221; stated Grimes. &#8220;And, basically, out of the aggregate we come out with three different products. The first is crusher run. The second is No. 2 stones [all one size]. Third is surge, which is a larger stone that hasn&#8217;t been separated or refined to a smaller product.&#8221; According to Grimes, all three products are produced from a grinding process. As part of its tub grinding operation, the company handles trees, stumps, stump removals and tree splitting, grinding them into mulch. Grimes&#8217; inventory of equipment has been primarily supplied by Vernon E. Stup, who has been doing business with him for a number of years. He recently took delivery of a new Cat 963 loader from Alban, but Stup has provided most of its other equipment. He now owns three Case rubber-tired loaders, three track excavators, a Morbark 1300 tub grinder, and a BL-Pegson 24 by 44 crusher. Stup is a local distributor who has been doing business with Grimes over the years through his trucking business. Grimes said he prefers to deal with local firms because &#8220;the representation from both sales and service has been excellent and I highly recommend their product as well as their services. &#8220;Why do I deal with Stup?&#8221; Grimes replied, &#8220;When I was new to recycling, the company brought to my attention some of the modern-day equipment that makes for efficient operation, such as the Geith checker screen. Those types of equipment have put us into a high-tech operation. It was through their sales efforts that I became knowledgeable about the different kinds of equipment.&#8221; Grimes not only recycles, he also is an International truck dealer. He, in fact, sold Stup or the Stup firm most of their trucks over the years. He bought his first piece of construction equipment, a Case 621 loader, from Stup and then added all the other equipment over the past two years. Grimes&#8217; business acumen came from his parents. &#8220;I was born and raised in a business family,&#8221; Grimes said. &#8220;My parents had a grocery store, gas station and did general repairs. I started with them. When I came out of the service in 1957, I worked for my parents. Then, in 1961, I bought them out. At that time, I closed all their operations, and went into the specialty business of automotive truck and machinery repairs. In 1967, I got the franchise from International Harvester as a truck dealer and the business has grown to what it is today.&#8221; Grimes now has two dealerships, one in Frederick and one in Hagerstown. He also owns a truck leasing operation with more than 500 trucks in its fleet. In addition, Grimes operates a towing business with 17 pieces of towing equipment from automotive to the heaviest available, a 60-ton (54 t) rotator. Although Grimes has most of his businesses firmly planted on the ground, he also takes to the air. &#8220;I do own another corporation by the name of Air Frederick,&#8221; said Grimes. &#8220;I own and operate a helicopter that I use in the business of visiting my customers as well as my different businesses. I also happen to be a pilot.&#8221;This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.