Since the 1950s, Whitehead has been serving the Fort Myers area. Initially, the company was involved in mining and road building. Whitehead later evolved into a contractor landfill and material recycler, and in 2004 became Whitehead & Johns Inc.
“We do contractor landfill and material recycling,” said Joe Johns, president of Whitehead & Johns Inc. “We have three yards in Fort Myers and take in all contractor debris when they get off jobs and recycle it. Asphalt, concrete, block, brick, roof tiles and things like that and make a usable product out of it.”
According to Johns, recycled material from the company’s south yard has been used in numerous projects.
“We are DOT certified in our south yard and that is all from recycled concrete. They make us jump through more hoops than any of the mines in town but as long as we carry through with their specs they will certify the crushed material. Most of our material goes on road jobs. We put a lot of material on the I-75 project they used some of our ballast stone and crushed rock and some fill dirt. Most of the infrastructure around town has some of our material in it.”
For the screening needs of the company’s yards, Johns has continued to use Powerscreen Powergrid 60 in. screens.
“We have had this one for 15 years. Have the same type of machine at the other two yards. That is all I buy in the screening department.”
Johns also is focused on growth, specifically on the expansion of his north yard.
“We are working on crushing concrete and have built up a supply of that and now are processing fill dirt and screening it out. We will start the asphalt next. We go from one product to the next.”
This expansion created a need for the right piece of equipment. That’s when Johns and his father saw the SDLG loader in the pages of Construction Equipment Guide.
“My dad had called me and asked if I had looked at it because we were looking at other machines. We decided to try this machine with Flagler because of the branch in town and the service was close by. So far any issues we have had with this machine Flagler has taken care of. My dad is 75 and he is an avid reader of your publication. He reads it from front page to back page and so whatever I miss he fills me in.”
After testing several models, Johns said the SDLG was the right choice for a new loader.
“We have had this SDLG loader for four or five months. We have tried every loader out there and we were up for trying something new. The components on this machine are basically the same, Deutz engines and ZF transmissions and rear ends. The sheet metal doesn’t make a difference.”
