With Help From Long Beach, Asphalt Recycling Plant Hits the Ground Running

Standing proudly atop a 15-foot plateau of ground asphalt, EcoPave President Steve Vance motioned toward three massive mounds of either fine, course or chunky bits of street.

To Vance, the surrounding rock piles represent quality control--an assurance that his new company’s recycled asphalt has just the right overall consistency to resurface brittle roads.

But to Long Beach officials below eating lunch amid the plant’s faint petroleum odor, the black mounds are a blunt symbol of their most recent success in attracting and shepherding fresh recycling technologies.

The plant is the fifth to take advantage of Long Beach’s Recycling Market Development Zone, a 4-year-old state program through which the city provides recycling firms business consultants, low-interest financing and employee training. In exchange for city officials said, EcoPave is providing 15 permanent jobs and valuable credits toward state recycling goals.

At EcoPave’s ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, public works director Ray Holland said that while EcoPave’s services are not limited to Long Beach, the company can help the city save hundreds of thousands of dollars in paving, transportation and disposal costs as workers upgrade city streets.

The plant opened in May on the site where an asphalt production facility operated for 50 years. At full capacity EcoPave is expected to produce more than 200,000 tons--or $4 million worth--of asphalt a year.