Brian Stephens was a picture of concentration as he moved pallets of granite pavers around at Stephens Natural Stone. On one side of the yard, granite slabs in an array of colors waited to be cut into pavers to use for patios, driveways, courtyards or walkways.

“Most people don’t think they can use granite outside,” said Matthew Alexander, the company’s marketing and sales consultant. “It’s usually too expensive.”

In less than a year, Stephens and his business partner, Jason English, have formed a Gig Harbor business that produces a common material used in building and home improvement. They keep tons of waste out of landfills and create local jobs.

“If those pieces didn’t end up here at the lot, they’d end up in a landfill,” Alexander said. “Here’s the scary number: Ninety percent of all granite in America is imported, and 30 percent of that goes back into landfills or is dumped illegally. There’s an incredible amount of waste.”

Alexander said the three largest granite fabricators in the state throw away about 100,000 pounds of material each week and spend about $1,000 a week in trucking and dumping. Stephens Natural Stone saves the fabricators money by picking up material, recycling it and keeping beautiful pieces of stone from being buried.

English and Stephens have more than 50 years of granite industry experience between them. Throughout their careers, they were disturbed by the amount of waste the industry produced. They knew there had to be a better way.

“Most fabricators look for large slabs of granite with no seams for counters and tabletops,” Stephens said. “After they cut the piece, they throw the leftovers away. It’s a massive amount of stone.”

Stephens learned that a North Carolina man had invented a granite press that could cut pieces of recycled stone into smaller tiles. He figured a business like that would be just the ticket for the green, recycling-conscious state of Washington.

“They’re doing this in North Carolina where, a year ago, they didn’t even have recycling bins,” he said. “If he was able to be successful there, it was a no-brainer for us.”

Stephens described the “stone cycler” machine as an “oversized cookie cutter.” The dynamics are essentially the same — a piece of granite is stamped out into a square, and those pieces can be stamped out into smaller squares. The leftover pieces are then ground down to make sand and gravel for roadways.

“We want everything that goes through here to get recycled in one form or another,” Stephens said. “It’s an interesting circle, deciding what to do with the leftover stuff. It’s not cheap to throw it away.”

Before they purchased the press, they went about collecting every piece of granite they could get their hands on. They hauled away material from fabricators and contractors who were all too happy to get rid of it.

But, after a while, they found a lot of the material was unusable and that they were spending too much money renting tractors, trailers and dump trucks.

“We were going backwards,” Stephens said. “We knew immediately we had to come up with another plan.”

The next step was to offer recycling bins at a nominal charge to contractors, but the material was still not up to par.

The perfect solution turned out to be to place special pallets at the job sites similar to plate-glass holders onto which the pieces could be stacked. The only requirement would be for the crews to make sure that usable pieces of material be placed onto the pallets, and then they would be hauled off for free.

That arrangement has proved to be the best, and the company has been going strong ever since. The plan is to purchase three more machines that will create 18 to 22 more jobs.

“These two guys have saved about 500 tons of granite from going into landfills to date,” Alexander said.

“We’d like to be able to do that in a month,” Stephens added. “There’s nobody on the West Coast doing this. This works because it’s free to fabricators, it’s cheap to the consumer and it’s a product that’s already being used. It’s a perfect opportunity to use local landscapers and architects.”

English said people love to see the finished product, but architects and landscapers don’t believe the stone can be cut into such small pieces. Stephens said granite could be cut into much smaller pieces than brick or concrete pavers because it is three times stronger.

“We’re not trying to sell anything new,” he said. “We’re selling something people already love at a fraction of the price. There’s a shop in Seattle that imports granite from China, and we’re able to produce and sell it for less than the imported cost.”

While China exports granite in three colors, Stephens Natural Stone has a variety, since it comes from different sources.

For more information, call 253-861-7592 or visit www.evergreengranitepavers.com.



Lifestyles Coordinator and reporter Susan Schell can be reached at 253-853-9240 or by email at susan.schell@gateline.com.