Riv/Crete Environmental

Riv/Crete Ready Mix is a family-owned business based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Our company is focused on providing our customers with the best service and highest quality concrete in the Milwaukee market. Along with that focus we also believe our company has a responsibility is to minimize our environmental impact as best we can. Here are just a few of the impacts we are making.

Carbon Cure

Concrete is the most used man-made material on earth and is second only to consumption of water. Concrete itself has a minimal impact on the environment. However, the main ingredient used to make concrete is called cement which emits Co2 during its production process. Roughly every ton of cement that is produced releases .90 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. The cement industry is undergoing a major transition in cement production reducing their emissions by almost 10%. Coinciding with this change is the introduction of a cutting-edge technology called Carbon Cure.

Cabon Cure technology injects captured Co2 into concrete during the mixing process. A chemical reaction occurs converting the gas back into particle size grains of limestone. This chemical reaction provides additional strength to our concrete mixes allowing us to use less cement in the manufacturing process and still maintain our strength requirements. When the chemical reaction occurs it permanently locks captured carbon dioxide in concrete. Even if the concrete is demolished, mineralized Co2 will never leak or return to the atmosphere.


Concrete Waste

We have zero waste in our concrete production because we use or re-use 100% of the material we produce. Any leftover concrete not used by our customers is returned to the concrete plant where it was originally manufactured and used to make concrete block or become road base. We have not landfilled returned concrete in over a decade.

Concrete Block

Returned concrete is poured into metal forms to become concrete bin block. These 2x2x4 bin block interlock and stack to form large storage areas that are ideal for landscapers, salt storage, or even concrete companies.

Road Base

Returned concrete that is not used to make concrete block is dumped into large piles that will eventually be crushed and converted into road base. This material is used to establish a durable surface for eventual roads and streets that our vehicles travel on.

Clean Burn

Concrete trucks require frequent oil changes to run efficiently and help prevent mechanical breakdowns. The amount of oil required to maintain our fleet is significant and burdensome to store and dispose. To address this issue Riv/Crete invested in a system called Clean Burn. The Clean Burn system uses "old" oil as its fuel source for heating our mechanic's garage. Throughout the year we store the used oil in an environmentally safe container. During the winter months we then tap into this fuel source to keep our mechanics warm while recycling the "old" oil as our fuel source.
“The credit is due to the Riv-Crete team for supplying in spec material on a timely basis all night even as ice rates were modified throughout the pour to keep temps where they needed to be. WisDOT IA rep who was on site commented that he had seen less than a dozen deck pours of that size have in spec material the entire pour.”
/ Philip Meinholz, P.E. Structural Engineer
“A company that knows its customers as well as it knows the products that it sells.”
/ Gary Wallis, St. Mary's Cement
“Riv/Crete Ready Mix is a valued producer member of the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association (WRMCA). Nicholas Rivecca is a respected past president of the WRMCA.”
/ Cherish Schween, Executive Director of WRMCA
“Riv/Crete Ready Mix brings to the concrete industry an extremely knowledgeable staff of concrete experts. Using state of the art concrete plants and admixtures, Riv/Crete Ready Mix has the ability to produce some of the most technical and advanced concrete in the marketplace.”
/ Paul Piekarski, Sales Rep. Sika Corporation