We are an innovative masonry supply company, dedicated to improving the
masonry market for our customers while simultaneously tackling environmental
issues. Our creative minds and dedicated team work tirelessly to stay ahead of the
curve and anticipate challenges for both the market and the individual before they
crop up. Your goals are ours, and we look forward to helping you achieve them.
For every pound of Portland cement produced, a parallel pound of carbon dioxide is produced and released into the atmosphere. Cement, in fact, is the single most polluting product on the planet, accounting for 7-8% of the world’s manmade carbon emissions.
Only 28% of glass is properly recycled; approximately 12 million tons of glass are brought to landfills each year. That greatly inhibits the reusability of the land, since glass takes more than a million years to decompose
The trick was to find an available, abundant resource and channel it properly. Simple to say, not that easy to do, but with testing and tinkering, we found the key ingredient that answered all of our questions.
Since glass starts out as sand, we reasoned that it could work well as a pozzolan. Not only did it bind beautifully as a cementitious material, but it answered the mounting problem of glass in landfills.
This unique material, called Pozzotive®, is a high-performance post consumer pozzolan and industrial filler made of 100% recycled post consumer glass. The glass is put through a patented process to remove all organics and reduce the glass to a fine, powder-like substance. Pozzotive® reduces the need for virgin mined materials as well as the need for common supplementary cementitious materials that often contain toxic and harmful metals and crystalline silicas.
Pozzotive can replace up to 40% of cement in building materials
Each pound of cement that we replace with
Pozzotive saves its correlating pound of carbon
dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
Pozzotive®’s uniquely small particle size enables us to produce blocks that are denser and stronger than standard blocks. Lab tests by the National Concrete Masonry Association say that our blocks can handle roughly three times more loading pressure per square inch than the industry standard. They both meet and exceed ASTM C-90 standards of Loadbearing Concrete Masonry Units, C-129 standards for Non-Loadbearing Concrete Masonry Units, and the ASTM C-1634 standards for Concrete Facing Brick. Moreover, Pozzotive®’s low carbon content means that it can be used during the cold weather, as well as in pre-cast and pre-stressed concrete.
Our base material—glass—has a consistent chemical composition, which means that it can be milled down to an ultra-fine, white powder with a uniform particle size. This consistency is easier to work with than standard concrete or other pozzolans, allowing for smoother and quicker manufacturing. As a result, we are able to provide you with masonry units in a timely fashion that are stronger, more durable, and superior in color.
Another distinct advantage of Pozzotive®’s particle size is that it requires less cement than other supplementary cementitious materials, and reduces the need for air entraining admixtures to compensate for the additional cement. This creates less voids within the concrete mixture, creating denser and more impenetrable blocks. The non-porous nature of our blocks means that they do a better job insulating and keeping out water than their industry standard counterparts.
Pozzotive® is the only pure pozzolan available in the masonry market. While other pozzolans are limited to the darker colors of their particular bases, with our uniform white base, our colors are purer and clearer than industry counterparts. Our unique finishes are also superior in texture, allowing you to perfectly suit our products to your project needs.
The number one problem of the cement industry is its excessive carbon emissions, accounting for 7-8% of the world’s carbon levels alone. In an effort to save our planet, we have committed to minimizing our use of Portland cement, which releases a pound of CO2 for every pound of cement produced. The supplementary cementitious material that we use, Pozzotive, replaces up to 40% of the Portland cement in mixtures, reducing the corresponding CO2 output by up to 40%.
In addition to using post-consumer glass in our mixes, we
are also able to mix in aggregate materials from already
demolishedbuildings, creating even more opportunities
to recycle. The ability to use these aggregates means that
our blocks can be composed of up to 97% recycled materials.
The process of creating Portland cement involves heating up kilns to temperatures up to 3000oF to chemically combine the raw ingredients into clinkers, which are then finely ground into cement. This firing of the kilns is what produces the carbon emissions. Pozzotive®, on the other hand, is made from a material—glass—that has already been calcified; the glass is cleaned and milled to be used as a supplementary cementitious material. In that manner, we are able to bypass the kiln for up to 40% of the cement content, thereby reducing the overall carbon footprint of the cement industry.
Glass is a problem in the waste streams at every urban center, and New York City, with its 8.6 million people, is no exception. The only way that glass is used to make new glass or fiberglass is through bottle redemption; curbside glass was, until now, sent to landfills to languish. The glass now, though, is diverted to be cleaned and milled through a special, patented process to create Pozzotive, which we then use to create our products. Our resources are local, and our material is made locally to give back to the local environment.
The most common supplementary cementitious materials often contain harmful metals, which we avoid by using glass as our base for our products. Crystalline silicas, classified as carcinogens, which are also often found in standard SCMs, are similarly avoided through our innovative production process. Our materials are better for everyone from the manufacturers to the construction workers to the ultimate recipients of the blocks.
Over the course of a single day, New York City produces approximately 12,000 tons of residential and institutional trash. Over time, the landfills are filled up and closed off to allow the garbage to decompose so that the land can be reused down the line. There are two main problems with the volume of garbage in its relation to the landfills: the glass content, and the physical space. Contrary to popular belief, curbside recycled glass is typically sent to landfills, where it languishes for over a million years before decomposing, effectively rendering that land unusable for the knowable future. Moreover, there is a finite amount of land available for landfills, and for every ton of garbage produced, more and more of that precious landfill space is used up. By using Pozzotive in our cementitious mixtures, we help solve those two major issues while simultaneously providing you with a superior product. 40% of the cement content, thereby reducing the overall carbon footprint of the cement industry.
