Sometimes, finding a new niche for a company means breaking down barriers that all competitors ignore, even though the opportunity is transparent.

Millions of tons of laminated glass or architectural glass used in buildings and vehicles are dumped in landfills every year. The challenge is to separate the plastic sandwiched between the glass plates, and finally get "clean" glass and plastic, which are sold as commodities for reuse.

Watson Recycling in Rochester started talking with customers of regional manufacturers that use glass. The failure rate of glass manufacturers is between 10% and 25%. A medium-sized manufacturer may send approximately 3,000 to 5,000 tons of laminated glass to the landfill each year.

A lot of laminated glass was thrown into the trash can. It is estimated that it may take 1 million years for this glass to be broken down into its components.

Chief Executive Officer Jeremiah Watson and President of Business Development Patrick Elmore determined that architectural glass is an almost untapped recycling market with only a few international companies working with it in the United States.

Patrick Elmore, Jeremiah Watson, Glen Watson and John Watson. Media Core / For the Post Bulletin

Once the opportunity was discovered, the Watson R&D team rolled up their sleeves and began designing a device to process glass for recycling.

About two years later, they had a unique machine that successfully turned a pane of various laminated glass and mirrors into piles of individual parts that can be recycled.

This is a business-to-business business. Infinite signs contracts with manufacturers to dispose of their waste, and then sells processed materials as commodities to companies that can use raw materials to make other glass and plastic products.

"The advantage of this is that we can dispose of waste materials and process them into marketable products. It makes financial sense. It works and it does a good job," Watson said.

Watson and Elmore admit that a small company in Rochester has solved problems that the US or even major international recyclers do not have, which is a bit surprising.

"Apart from us, I can't think of a reason why anyone hasn't done this yet," Elmore said. "We are not geniuses. This should have started 20 years ago. It is still a bit amazing to me."

Watson launched Infinite Recycled Technologies in early 2020 to put the prototype into use. The pandemic stalled the process for several months, but soon the fledgling factory expanded to a 65,000 square foot factory in Albert Lea.

Now, the Watson/Infinite plant runs a 2.0 processing machine and 20 employees, reclaiming approximately 17 million pounds of glass and plastic that would have been dumped in landfills.

Since recycled glass requires logistics, and then the processed materials are shipped to buyers as commodities, so the recycling business is regional. The Albert Lea plant processes glass from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota. An increasing number of regional customers include Hayfield Windows, K & M Glass and Hentges Glass.

The next phase will begin in November, when Infinite will start another architectural glass recycling business in Ocala, Florida, to process tons of "hurricane" glass. The first phase will be housed in a temporary facility, and Watson will acquire land to build a permanent processing complex.

"Florida has a lot of waste glass," Watson said of why he would expand there next.

The recovered glass is reduced to powder by Patrick Elmore/ for announcement

Watson’s family was involved in waste disposal and recycling as early as the 1800s, and he said he was as surprised as anyone else that they took the lead in this regard. However, successfully breaking the password of architectural glass processing opened the door to unlimited potential for market growth and expansion in new regions.

Elmore estimates that 12 million tons of glass are discarded in the United States each year, most of which are architectural glass. He said that this adds up to the weight of 19 ships of the Titanic combined.

"Demand is astronomical. The sky is the limit. In the United States alone, there may be more than 100 (companies that recycle architectural glass), but we still won't touch the surface," Watson said.

However, the family-owned Rochester company plans to make a strategic adjustment to its growth.

The glass is processed at Infinite Recycling's Albert Lea factory. Patrick Elmore/ For the Post Bulletin

In 2011, the family spent $3.5 million to build a $3.5 million factory on 12 acres of land on 81st Street outside the northern border of Rochester, which more than tripled the scale of Watson Recycling. The company has expanded its former Rochester factory on North Broadway. They increased vehicle recycling and started accepting ferrous metals at new locations.

"From our first year here to now, we have been gradually growing every year," he said while sitting in his Rochester factory office. "Our trading volume today is more than twice what we had when we first started."

The Unlimited Recycling Enterprise is just the latest initiative of the Watson family, which is deeply rooted in southeastern Minnesota.

When Rochester recorded its first municipal landfill in the 1890s, William Watson, Jeremiah's great-great-grandfather, was appointed as the "chief scavenger." His job is to walk through the garbage dump and take out anything that can be reused or sold as a raw material.

Watson's grandfather and father-Rodney Watson and Glenn Watson-also worked in garbage and recycling. Glen Watson is now the president of the recycling business, which was launched in 2006, and many of his 16 children work for the company.