Source: Fabcon LLC, Savage, Minn.

Through a partnership with Minneapolis-based VAST Enterprises, LLC, Fabcon is producing the industry’s first structural precast wall panels with embedded composite bricks. Containing up to 95 percent post-consumer/post-industrial recycled material, the thin-brick veneer units borrow from rubber and plastic processing methods VAST has applied to brick pavers now being promoted through masonry dealers. Between the veneer, steel reinforcement and concrete mix components, Fabcon’s newest wall panel offerings will have a recycled content of up to 85 percent.

“Over the next five years, Fabcon and VAST will work together on the composite thin brick to divert approximately 350 million pounds of recyclable materials from landfills,” notes Fabcon CEO Mike Le Jeune. “Our customers will be getting the highest quality panels, while improving their ability to qualify for LEED points and helping to reduce the burden on landfills.” For every 50,000-sq.-ft. structure built with the panels, he adds, the company calculates diversion from landfills of approximately 7,500 tires and 220,000 plastic containers.