One-stop-chop.
Keep it in the family. Do it all. Do it better than anybody else out there. And don’t be in competition with your customers. From demolition to reusable, recycled end product – even from meatballs to pasta fagioli – Dominick Mazza has always been a do-it-yourself-guy.
Recycle this
These days, everybody seems to be talking about going green. At Mazza & Sons Demolition and Recycling in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, there’s no talk – just action. And it’s been that way for a long time. “Mazza is a third generation company,” said Sean Collins, Vice President of Sales at the nearby Penn Jersey Machinery Volvo dealership that serves Mazza. “They started as a demolition and salvage business. They have diversified into a full service provider – processing everything brought in to the transfer station.”
The transfer station is the hub. For 10 hours a day, it – and the surrounding operations – is a beehive of activity. Demolition contractors dumping rock and rubble for crushing. Scrap metal dealers delivering their barbed, once useful treasures to the waiting jaws of the towering grapple handler. Roll off company waste bins spilling their holdings on to the concrete station floor. Homeowners unloading the remains of a remodeling project.
Inside the transfer station it’s loud. Everything is moving. A wheel loader carves a 20-foot-wide path, from the small piles delivered by customers into the main heap. There, a Volvo EC240B excavator, fitted with a grapple big enough to pluck a car up by its rooftop, sits atop the pile. On every swing it grabs whatever is in its path. The heap is a jambalaya of everything brought into the station. It grabs the mix waste and feeds it above to a waiting conveyor belt. The belt keeps moving. It’s always hungry for more. And the Volvo EC240B keeps feeding it.
“Reversible fans really sold us on Volvo excavators,” said President and Owner Dominick Mazza Sr. “We run them all day. There can be a lot of dust in the transfer station. Because of overheating we’d have to shut down our Komatsu excavators every couple hours to blow out the debris with a compressor.”
Volvo delivered
“That’s how Mazza started using Volvo,” added Sean Collins at Penn Jersey Machinery. “I came to see Jim Mazza (Dominick’s brother and co-owner) and told him about Volvo. Jim said I shouldn’t waste my time. He asked me if I looked around the yard and saw the 19 Komatsu’s they had.” Collins then suggested a few local contractors that had success with Volvo. Jim immediately picked up the phone and called them in front of the salesman and liked what he heard. Mazza was awaiting delivery of a new Komatsu – but they needed a machine immediately. Penn Jersey had a machine in stock equipped with a reversible fan and grapple – so Mazza agreed to rent it. The machine never came back.
A while later Mazza needed a wheel loader. Penn Jersey had a Volvo L180E and delivered it immediately for a demo. “They were so impressed with the performance and fuel efficiency of the loader, this machine also didn’t come back,” continued Sean Collins. “Volvo’s ability to deliver machines, purpose built for their specific application, really impressed the Mazza family. The quality, reliability, serviceability and low-operating costs of the products really opened their eyes. The Mazza’s are a hard-working, hands-on family and Penn Jersey is proud to be a part of their team.”
Their confidence in Volvo, along with the support they receive from Penn Jersey Machinery, has resulted in Mazza purchasing another L180E and a second EC240B waste handler fitted with a full, factory-installed transfer station package. This package includes a reversing fan, extra guarding on the side panels and swing bearing, extra filtration for the engine and cab, along with extra sealing in the compartment panels to keep debris out of the radiator and coolers. Mazza has also purchased a Volvo EC330B excavator and a Volvo A25D articulated hauler.
“My dad and my Uncle Jim have done it their whole lives,” said Dominick Mazza Jr. “They operate it all and they know right away what a good machine is. The Volvos have obviously impressed them.” Incorporated in 1964, Mazza & Sons has been in its current Tinton Falls location since 1981. Dominick Jr., known around Mazza as DJ, is part of the Mazza 3rd wave. DJ, Director of Finance, and his brother Joseph are both public accountants, helping to make sure everything runs as smooth on the back end as it does out in the yard under the supervision of their cousin Jimmy Jr., Director of Operations.
Sort it out
Back in the transfer station the conveyor belt always keeps things moving. The mix waste loaded by the Volvo EC240B travels up the belt into a separate sorting room. A screen sifts out the “fines” smaller than 1.5”. The conveyor is elevated above large bays where workers sort out the co-mingled material – designated in New Jersey as Type 13 and 13C solid waste: wood, metal, concrete, plastic, vinyl, gypsum drywall and cardboard. The remaining debris is loaded into trucks headed for landfills.
The transfer station processes between 600-1,100 tons of construction and demolition waste per day – over 200,000 tons of Type 13/13C waste per year. Of that volume Mazza recycles 25% – about 50,000 tons a year.
Some of the wood is converted to industry boiler fuel, an alternative energy source. Other wood recycling is leased out to a company next door. Here they process 200,000 tons of wood into landscape mulch. The rest of the sorted materials are sold to other vendors for processing into new materials.
Some things stay the same
For Dominick Mazza, some things need to stay constant. Like good people. “Retaining reliable help is vital,” added Dominick Sr. “We’ve been fortunate to have some great people with us a long time, including Fran Donner (Office Manager), Michael Davis (Material Recovery Facility Supervisor), Juan Velasquez (Transfer Station Supervisor), Michael Softcheck (Head Mechanic) and Bobby Albanese (Head Scale Master).”
Another required constant is reliability. “When I buy a machine it needs to do its job well – everyday,” stated Dominick Sr. The three things Mazza looks for in a machine are breakout force, fuel consumption and an efficient cooling system. “Our Volvos deliver breakout force at least 50% better than Komatsu. There’s no comparison on fuel efficiency. Our Volvo excavators burn 35 gallons of fuel a day. The Komatsu machines are going through 60-70 gallons a day. That’s over $30,000 in yearly fuel savings.”
Growth opportunities
At Mazza & Sons, there is no status quo. It is status grow. Growing the business, the service offerings and the peripheral 65-acre industrial recycling park that will soon be part of the grounds. The Volvo wheel loaders are handling site preparation, moving over 1 million yards of dirt. Mazza is now lining up tenants with a goal of bringing in larger tire grinding facilities, recyclers of glass, tin – even automobiles.
“We’re already a one-stop-shop for handling waste and recycling,” said Dominick Sr. “We’re unique in that we can do the demolition, process it and recycle it. I don’t want to be in competition with my customers. We can work together. The industrial complex is the logical progression.”
It doesn’t end there. On an adjacent parcel of land in front of the transfer station Dominick Sr.’s nephew operates a wire and computer e-waste recycling operation. They’re also adding solar panels to the roof of the transfer station. DJ said his father calls it a good way to “recycle the sun”.
And what about those aforementioned meatballs? Dominick Sr. still cooks a gourmet-quality lunch for everyone in the office everyday. “The best cook in the recycling industry,” boasts long-time staffer Peter Dellera Jr. It’s just another hands-on approach from a busy guy in a dirty business.
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