Pryor is the home of one of the country’s most unique and environmentally-

friendly businesses: Amazon Environmental.

Everyone knows that they shouldn’t put leftover paint down the drain and that landfill space is getting scarce, but most are not aware that it can be reprocessed into quality recycled paint and cement, as is now being done in Pryor.

Amazon Environmental, Inc., the nation’s largest recycler of leftover latex paint, and Buzzi Unicem USA have partnered with a facility in Pryor that opened in

Jan. 2008. Since the partnership began in 2007, Amazon has turned almost 1,625,000 gallons of leftover waste paint into 10,000 tons of Processed Latex Pigment (PLP) for use at the Buzzi cement plant in Pryor.

Paint collected by Amazon that is non-usable is sent to the Pryor facility and manufactured into Processed Latex Pigment (PLP), a material used by Buzzi Unicem, a cement manufacturer, in the making of their cement.

Why is Amazon’s PLP material greener than other cement ingredients? It is not made from virgin raw

materials. Calcium oxide is the primary raw material used for cement, and it is found in lime dust, a waste material generated right here in Pryor. Lime dust is difficult to use in cement manufacture because is too difficult to handle. It is simply too dusty. Therefore, Amazon mixes the dust with old paint, creating the PLP. The consistency of PLP is similar to dirt, which is easy to handle with Buzzi’s conventional loaders and conveying systems.

“PLP is a win-win for everyone,” said Mike Trimble, the quality control manager at Buzzi. “Paint and lime dust are kept out of the landfill, so it is good for the environment; jobs are created, which helps the local economy; and Buzzi gets a lower-cost raw material, which can help keep down the price of cement.”

John Segala, president of Amazon, said the management team at Buzzi was receptive to the idea from the start. “Most cement plants are not as open to new ideas as the folks at Buzzi’s Pryor plant,” according to Segala. “Buzzi really liked the idea of using these non-hazardous waste materials to partially replace virgin material that would otherwise be mined.”

Buzzi and Amazon have a unique arrangement in which Amazon leases property from Buzzi, on which Amazon has erected a paint processing facility. Because of this proximity, PLP doesn’t have to be

trucked from a distant location, another reason that the material is so environmentally-friendly.

“We make the PLP, and then place it on a pad specially built by Buzzi to contain the material until they are ready to use it. When they need a supply, they simply send over their loader to get what they need,” Segala said.

PLP is not all that Amazon makes. Some of the paint that Amazon receives is recycled into 12 colors of high quality interior/exterior paint. The recycled content paint is made at Amazon’s facilities in California or Minnesota and is comparable in quality to much more expensive paints. However, much of the leftover latex paint that Amazon collects is not usable as paint for various reasons and is therefore sent to the Pryor plant to become PLP.

The recycled paint, although not manufactured in Pryor, is still for sale in Pryor at 40 dollars per five-gallon pail.

Amazon is not currently set up to accept waste paint from the general public in Pryor. “But businesses such as contractors may bring latex paint to the facility for a recycling fee,” said Steve Roberts, Amazon’s plant manager in Pryor.

The first year of operation has been so successful for Amazon and Buzzi that additional storage space for PLP to cure was needed. Amazon recently erected a second building at the site to contain PLP in the curing process and lime dust that is used in the PLP process.

Amazon expects to process close to 750,000 gallons of paint into PLP at the Pryor plant this year.