The State of Michigan website says if every Michigan family spent $10 a week on Michigan-made products, it would keep $37-million a week in our state.
NBC25 is letting you know about products that are made in Michigan, which keep jobs here and benefit local budgets.
One MidMichigan business produces asphalt repair equipment. In the tiny town of North Branch lies an international company that makes the T-2 asphalt millings recycler.
The hot box is loaded up with regular material, but it also uses asphalt roofing shingles taken off someone's roof. They're thrown inside the hot box and cooked at 350-degrees.
Kurt Schwartz, who works in sales and marketing, says "Instead of throwing the asphalt millings and chunked asphalt into the landfills, or filling the dumps with them, we're capable of rejuvenating the asphalt with old asphalt shingles, which is normally going into the land fills, but here we're making hot fresh asphalt even on days like today when the asphalt plants are shut down. We're totally capable of going out and filling potholes."
The company says, it produces a superior product, which costs considerably less.
It says cold patch, that's normally used to fix roads in the winter costs around $120 a ton. They say, hot-mix asphalt costs around $80 a ton. But the recycled asphalt recipe is around $20 a ton.
Clifford Cameron, who works in sales and marketing, says "We're getting into our second year right now. We worked with MDOT who had the first prototype unit that we had out there. They used it. Liked it. Loved it. And it ended up with one."
The folks at KM International gave NBC25 quite a display from rolling up to potholes, to filling them, to packing them down. In a matter of minutes, 3 potholes turned into patches, and it's more economical and more environmentally friendly.
KM International has thousands of customers all over the world.
Several units are on their way to Russia.
The company prides itself in making materials and equipment in MidMichigan and returns the favor by purchasing its materials and services locally.
Schwartz says, "It's part of keeping us strong and moving us in the right direction."
KM International was recently featured on the Discovery Channel's Motor City Motors.
It equips several small business owners who they say can make $50,000 a month patching holes.
