A Washington drywall recycling company is building its first processing plant at the Port of Ridgefield. The port has reached an agreement to lease 21,000 square feet of industrial space, valued at $1.9 million, and adjacent yard area to DRS Inc. of Mill Creek.
DRS is primarily a drywall recycler, or “scrapper,” processing all paper, cardboard, wood, metal and gypsum that they collect to eliminate expensive dumping into landfills. The company provides customizable services for commercial and residential construction sites, including drywall scrapping, job site clean up, papering, masking, sweeping and debris recycling. The company will be making a $700,000 to $750,000 capital investment in the property to build out the space. DRS expects to take full possession of the space by late February.
The company is licensed in Washington and Oregon to use their gypsum as fertilizer and the Ridgefield location allows good access to Interstate 84, which leads to more rural, farming areas, said DRS Sales Manager Brian Thompson.
DRS Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary DRS Union Inc. are Nevada corporations established in December 2006. Previously, the company was operated as DRS Inc., a Washington state corporation since January 2006. The transition was made in order to position the company for further expansion and to prepare for a future public offering. The earliest the company will go public is late March to early April, but more likely by June, said Thompson.
“With these machines and trucks, the capital cost is so high, to keep doing this out of our pocket is almost impossible,” he said. The company is seeking to expand into other states such as California, Nevada and Idaho, and it needs “more capital and more investors to make that a reality.”
Other DRS yards are located in Maltby and Milton, Wash., and Portland, Ore. The Ridgefield site will employ 15 people, five on site and 10 drivers. Overall, the company has 52 employees and, in the Puget Sound area, 32 trucks.
