Kentucky entrepreneur to showcase recycled materials construction system at world horse games

A Southern Kentucky entrepreneur is being recognized for making concrete from recycled materials and will have a chance to showcase his product at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington this fall. Steve Pfoff, owner and founder of Monumental Builders in Jamestown, is building a horse barn at the Kentucky Horse Park, which will host the games, Derek Aaron of The Times Journal of Russell Springs reports. The barn will be constructed from Pfoff's patented "cultured stone" concrete block system, which uses 90 percent recycled material.

Earlier this week Pfoff's system was awarded a $1,000 prize, based on a one-page outline of the idea and business model, from the Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation's Big Idea Competition. Pfoff will move onto the second phase of judging where he will be eligible for an additional $2,500. If he makes it to the third phase, Pfoff could win as much as $10,000 and 12 months of free rent in the Kentucky Highlands Business Innovation and Growth Center. "Literally what we can do is go in, crush an existing building down grind it up and put all the materials from that building back into the stone and rebuild a building in place of it," he said. "The buildings have a shelf life of hundreds of years," Pfoff told Aaron. "We went to the landfill owners and took some state people and told them that we've got a product that can stop a lot of the landfill fills."

"It is unlimited in what it can be utilized for," he added. "For LEED and recyclable purposes it has just a huge potential profit." LEED is an internationally recognized "green building" certification system. The Horse Park gave Pfoff a lot to display his barn during the games, which run Sept. 25-Oct. 10. It was only after beginning construction on the barn that Pfoff learned of the Kentucky Highlands competition. "It is larger than I am and we are all aware of this," he said. "Every landfill in this nation could implement a program where they take the infrastructure that is being demoed in their local area and it be ground up, recycled and put back in my stone to rebuild their infrastructure locally and that material would not end up in a landfill." (Read more)