Video: CalStar Hosts Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

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LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss.(WCBI)– A brick and masonry manufacturing company officially opens at the Golden Triangle Regional Industrial Park. It’s an official ribbon cutting ceremony for CalStar, a Wisconsin-based company producing bricks and pavers from recycled industrial byproducts.

A special brand of high quality masonry is already being shipped from the location, but a ribbon cutting celebration with CalStar and Lowndes County officials is a way of showcasing another product made in Mississippi.

“These brick and stone items that they bring, we see in buildings whether they be on college campuses, whether they be in private buildings, whether they be in homes. So its a product that is used throughout the state, throughout the South East, throughout the community, throughout the world,” MDA Executive Director Brent Christensen said.

CalStar is adding 30 new jobs to the area, which is expected to increase to 85 at full capacity. Brick produced with the help of and by these workers are not your ordinary bricks.

The folks at CalStar describe themselves as having a green process, creating a green product, giving green jobs.

“We take 37 percent recycled material, and then in a process that’s 81 percent less energy-producing, 84 percent more less carbon dioxide. We make a product that’s 100 percent beautiful and 110 percent affordable,” CalStar Chief Executive Officer Joel D. Rood said.

The CalStar plant locating in our area boasts of having a good location and a dedicated ready workforce.

“The connection with economic development here was very attractive. Gave us a footprint in the south. Gave us a good exposure, connection to our customers from North Carolina all the way to Texas,” Rood said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to put sustainable products into our buildings throughout the state,” Christensen said.

There are already plans for a third plant depending on demand for the product.

Categories: Local News

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