Frank Montecalvo graduated from Woodbridge High School in 1976. His story is one of an entrepreneur whose competitive advantages were determination, integrity, intelligence and ambition. Frank started the recycling business 34 years ago when he was 16 –he collected and recycled glass from his family’s business and other restaurants in the area. To transport more weight, he built a glass crusher in his backyard and bought his first dump truck before the age of 18. Soon, he was transporting stone, topsoil and asphalt. A gifted mechanic, Frank purchased and repaired three more used Mack trucks when he was 19. At 20, he bought a loader and back hoe, and started to do small excavation jobs. By age 22, he had a fleet of heavy equipment; and by 27, he was paving parking lots, installed drainage pipes and performed other site and infrastructure work. In his 30s, he grew into excavation and road construction, and expanded from private work into municipal projects. These projects included: installing sanitary sewer systems, storm sewers, water mains, curbs, sidewalks, and paving roads. By the time he was 40, Frank built pump stations and larger municipal projects--competing successfully with companies that had been operating in the industry for several generations.

In the mid 90’s, Frank and his wife/business partner Valerie turned their focus to recycling as they were astounded by the amount of recyclables going to landfills. Frank knew that he could produce an aggregate product from the materials being excavated on road reconstruction job sites. As a competitive businessman, Frank possessed the integrity determination, intelligence, ingenuity and ambition to succeed in making construction material recycling a profitable enterprise. Together, the Montecalvos developed a 52-acre site in Woodbridge for a full-scale recycling operation. In 2004, Bayshore Soil Management was launched to remediate non-hazardous petroleum contaminated soil. Frank positioned a low-temperature thermal desorption unit in an existing warehouse and obtained DEP permits to process up to 3,000 tons per day of material. The technology operates similar to an asphalt plant with all material processing and storage taking place indoors or within the equipment, therefore maintaining compliance with New Jersey’s rigid environmental standards.

In 2005, Frank also spearheaded implementation of a public/private research project to re-engineer dredge material processing and beneficial re-use in partnership with the Port Authority of NY and NJ, the Army Corps of Engineers, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Department of Energy, the US EPA and the NJDEP. He conceived of the idea to purchase a 730-foot ship and converted it into a mobile dredge material storage and processing platform to demonstrate innovative sediment decontamination technologies. These technologies demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing valuable products (e.g. soils, cements and road aggregates) from the 4-6 million cubic yards of annual material required to be dredged from waterways to permit safe commercial navigation.

Frank led another public/private partnership with Rutgers University to study and implement the use of crumb rubber in roads and other construction materials. He collaborated with the NJDOT and NJDEP to develop an economic and efficient processing methodology for the high volume re-use of scrap tires. The research proved successful and Frank created a unique design mix for asphalt enhanced with crumb rubber.

Six years ago, Frank launched Coastal Metal Recycling Corp to accept scrap metals including copper, brass, steel, and wire, enabling the Eco-Complex to recycle a wider range of materials.

During the same year, he also started yet another business venture a material recovery/recycling facility for mixed bulky waste and construction debris. The empty warehouses adjacent to the thermal soil operation were perfect to position the Montecalvo Material Recovery Facility. As soon as the business opened, Frank realized that a larger system was needed to process the volume of material accepted (up to 1,000 tons per day per NJDEP permit). He designed a C & D sorting line and processing unit that was unveiled on Earth Day 2010, which recovers approximately 75 percent of the incoming mixed waste into recyclable products. This multi-million dollar system uses both mechanical and manual labor to source separate the material. This "state-of-the-art" system unveiled on Earth Day in 2010, the Montecalvo Material Recovery Facility won the National C & D Recycler of the Year from the Construction Material Recycling Association (CMRA).

A hands-on owner, Frank applies his extensive experience in overseeing the operations, engineering, equipment purchase, quality control and innovation associated with the entire Eco-Complex and Energy Campus on a daily basis.

Frank resides in Highlands, N.J. with his wife and son, Frankie Montecalvo, a professional sports car racer. Daughter Nicole also works for the firm in public relations and marketing and lives in North Jersey. The Montecalvos rescue Mastiff/Great Danes and currently share their home with 5 large dogs. Frank is an avid boater and enjoys living at the Jersey Shore. The Montecalvos support many local charities and will be honored this year by the Central Jersey Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation for their multitude of philanthropic endeavors.

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