When Apex business owner Troy Menges, sat down with a builder friend of his about a year ago, little did he know where that one conversation would lead.

The one topic that kept coming up in their talk was the problem builders had of disposing of concrete and stone debris. And with everyone out there trying to find a way to be “green” and ecologically responsible, Menges set out to find a solution.

No one as yet had figured out what to do with all the large slabs of unusable masonry that pile up at building sites. Everybody’s problem was trash.

While there are large stationary crusher units on the market, they are most often utilized by very large construction firms and are not readily available to the small builder or contractor. These builders must pay high fees to independent hauling companies to transport the building debris to landfills where they must pay an additional fee to dump.

Also, trucking companies pass on the cost of wear and tear to their vehicles and any overweight fees to the builder.

Menges and his partners came up with the idea for CRR – Concrete Recycling Resources. Their idea was to take the concept of the large, stationary crushers, and scale it down so it could be mounted on a truck bed in order to make it a mobile unit.

Menges, along with his partners, approached R.R. Equipment of Lancaster, S.C., manufacturers of industrial, stationary crushers, to fabricate a crusher that could legally fit on the back of a truck and meet highway weight and size guidelines.

After almost a year spent on the design and engineering process, what emerged was a truck-mounted mobile unit that can fit in just about any and all residential applications.

Menges and his team sought and received a patent for their design. Neither they, nor the experts that helped them have been able to find another unit of its type anywhere in America. “There hasn’t been anything out there before for the small builder. Now there is.” says Menges. Concrete Recycling Resources, located in downtown Apex, goes directly to the job site and crushes unwanted concrete and masonry debris, recycling it into a usable pile of stone. This stone can then in turn be reused by the contractor right on site under driveways, sidewalks, roadbeds, building slabs, drainage systems and the like. This saves the builder the cost of purchasing crushed stone or gravel for their projects and eliminates the cost of transporting and landfill fees. The financial savings to the builder can be huge. Says Menges, “We are trying to educate the building community in this tough economic climate about how they can save. Education is the key. It is really about dollars and cents for the builder.” CRR currently is working on a large roadway project and serves many local builders, municipalities, landscapers and general contractors. “There is a proper way to dispose of this product now. You no longer have to take it to the dump,” says Menges. “Moreover, it is valuable landfill space that is no longer being needed or taken up. It really is a win win situation all around.” CRR is located at 1800 N. Salem St., Suite 101 in Apex, N.C.