ATLANTA (Oct. 21, 2009) – The QUIKRETE® Companies was honored through the POPULAR MECHANICS 2009 Breakthrough Awards. POPULAR MECHANICS announced the winners of its fifth annual Breakthrough Awards at a ceremony on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the Hearst Tower in New York City. The Breakthrough Awards celebrate “innovations poised to change the world, and the passionate, smart creators behind them.”
The QUIKRETE Companies, the largest manufacturer of packaged concrete and cement mixes in the United States and Canada, and an innovative leader in the commercial building and home improvement industries, received a dual Breakthrough Product Award for its development of a general use concrete mix and a high-performance patching material composed in a large part of recycled materials. They were named to the magazine’s “10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009.”
- QUIKRETE Green Concrete Mix consists of a blended concrete mix containing
50 percent recycled materials, which include recycled aggregates, fly ash (a post-industrial byproduct) and/or slag cements. With the use of recycled materials, Green Concrete Mix diverts material from the waste stream and preserves virgin aggregate resources. As an example, for each 60-pound bag of the material, there are 0.25 cubic
feet of waste diverted from the landfill volume. Green Concrete Mix is suitable for general concrete work. - QUIKRETE Asphalt Cold Patch contains approximately 90 percent graded recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) that is rejuvenated with a special binding agent. The patching material is designed to permanently repair potholes found in roadways and cracks over
1-inch. Requiring no heating or mixing, the patching material provides an immediate solution as the cold patch bonds with the surrounding asphalt. Once leveled and compacted using a tamper, the repaired surface can be driven on immediately.
“Every year in the U.S., old pavement generates as much as 45 million tons of pulverized asphalt, which goes mainly to landfills. Another 81 million tons of fly ash and slag are produced as coal is burned in power plants. The QUIKRETE Companies has started putting that waste to work in construction supplies. By using recycled roadway material in its Asphalt Cold Patch and coal-burning byproducts in Green Concrete Mix, the company increases efficiency while helping to clean up other people’s messes,” POPULAR MECHANICS noted.
“With the Green Concrete Mix and Asphalt Cold Patch, we’ve been able to engineer quality materials that live up to the standards required on the job,” said Jack Winchester, QUIKRETE chief operating officer. “We felt it was important, both socially and economically, to offer our customers these choices based on their needs and interests.”
“From flying cars to robots to wind turbines for homes, the innovations honored by the
2009 POPULAR MECHANICS Breakthrough Awards not only capture the imagination,
they hold the potential to improve and even save lives,” said James B. Meigs, editor-in-chief of POPULAR MECHANICS. “We are pleased to honor this year’s diverse list of visionaries and applaud their efforts to address such concerns as climate change, pollution, energy shortages and medical care in the developing world.”
Criteria and Evaluation
In selecting the candidates and winners of the 2009 Breakthrough Awards program, the editors of POPULAR MECHANICS canvassed a large range of experts and academics to come up with a list of worthy nominees. Members of POPULAR MECHANICS’s Board of Advisers reviewed the nominations to help the editors of POPULAR MECHANICS choose the winners.
A complete report of the Breakthrough Awards will be published in the November issue of POPULAR MECHANICS (on newsstands October 13, 2009).
ABOUT QUIKRETE
The QUIKRETE® Companies is the largest manufacturer of packaged concrete and cement mixes in the United States and Canada, and an innovative leader in the commercial building and home improvement industries. QUIKRETE® products are manufactured and bagged in
90 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and South America, allowing for unsurpassed distribution and product depth. The QUIKRETE® Technical Center ensures that professionals and consumers alike are provided with the most innovative and highest quality products available on the market. For additional information on The QUIKRETE® Companies or its products, please visit www.quikrete.com or call (800) 282-5828.
ABOUT POPULAR MECHANICS
Popular Mechanics (www.popularmechanics.com) is a magazine that helps readers master the modern world. In addition to providing hands-on coverage of personal technology, cars and home improvement, PM reports in depth on the science and technology behind major issues — including such stories as disaster planning, hydrogen fuel and other energy alternatives, military expenditures, and digital privacy. Each month, nearly 9 million readers turn for advice and news to the magazine’s editors and contributors, including the likes of Jay Leno, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Tom Jones, and roboticist Daniel H. Wilson. In addition to its U.S. flagship, Popular Mechanics publishes nine editions around the world. Popular Mechanics is published by Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) and one of the world’s largest publishers of monthly magazines, with nearly 200 editions around the world, including 15 U.S. titles and 19 magazines in the United Kingdom, published through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National Magazine Company Limited. Hearst reaches more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (73.4 million total adults, according to MRI, Spring 2009).
