Friendly to the environment: Equipment brings new service to Sheltered Workshop, keeps scrap wood out of landfills

SIKESTON -- Thanks to a grant, as well as a donation from one of its partners, the Community Sheltered Workshop is now offering a new service, which also helps the environment.

For the past few weeks, the Sheltered Workshop has been using a recently purchased machine to grind large pieces of scrap wood into mulch and then dye it.

"This eliminates the landfills of getting the scrap," said Harvey Cooper, director of the Sheltered Workshop. "We already had a wood hog, which grinds up the scrap, but we can't color it and we can't throw the big stuff in it."

In addition to a $50,000 grant from the Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority, the Sheltered Workshop received a $150,000 donation from Noranda Aluminum in Marston to purchase the refurbished equipment.

"In exchange for that, we'll haul all of their scrap away," said Cooper. "We've agreed to do it for a five-year period."

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