THE CEMENT FACTORY TOUR!!!
Disclaimer: Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. EnjoyTopics: Cement, Manufacturing, Processes, Limestone, Heat, Heights, Adrenaline Conveyer Belts, Amazing, Scary, So Fun, Hard Hats, PPE, Borrowed Shoes
Brah! I literally forgot about this event. I got an email from them mid day, like, btw, here is the way to get here, and it turns out my daughter is staying one extra night with her dad. So, suddenly I have today free and the time to go TOUR A CEMENT FACTORY!!! ahahaha. Like, randomly intimidating and AMAZING. 100%
Why Attend: Uh… duh! I walk on sidewalks all the time. How does cement work? I’m so curious about this kinda stuff, and surely it’ll be wild to see, amazing, and funny, and fun, and surreal, but also, like, one of the most classic inventions/tools of modern day. So, just 100% fun and eccentric and in line with all the crazy tours i love to go on to learn about the world. Plus, I get to break my “no pants” boycott. So, it’ll be fun to wear pants out of my house for the first time in almost a year! And then wear them to the event(s) after/tonight. These people have no idea what they’re witnessing!! LOL.
Photo Collage and Commentary:
Notes from the Event:
I just want to say this was arguably the most fun I’ve had in a while. My bike ride there I was exclaiming aloud, talking to myself/no one/the world, like, OMG this is insane, hilarious, and amazing. The bike ride up was fun. The tour was incredible and terrifying. It was wild. I had such an adrenaline rush and the “post-cement-factory high” was like no other hahahaha. I was HYPED.
When I arrived, I was the first one hahahaha. The other girl here works for a STEEL MILL and said they do tours too!! I’m literally calling them now. Then I’ll post my notes below. I wanna go on their tour hahaha. Uugh - okay first the receptionist answered and said she’d transfer my call but then it hung up after a few rings. I’ll try again later. Maybe they’re busy on Fridays.
Like 8 people all walk in at once dressed up in PPE, and you’d think they work here.
The guy working here giving the tour used to be a consultant and now works here.
I’m so skeptical of the consulting industry. Cause Ryan Cohen is my hero and he rolls his eyes at many consultants. LOL. Monkey see, money do!!!
They’re gonna give a tour, a brief presentation - no one is asking why I’m on my laptop hahah perfect.
After the tour,you cn go to their happy hour arrangement at the brewery nearby. - The chapter is covering everyone’s first drink.
I won’t go - I’ll go to an event on AI.
One woman jokes do you need an incentive to drink beer and the other guy says you gotta twist his arm.
The walking and tour/presentation will probably take 1.5 hours. WOW. Hahahah.
Another guy says don’t take too long cause you’re standing between us and a cold beer.
LOL I feel liek I’m in the opposite of AA.
People are so obsessed with forbidden fruits like alcohol. Really. You can drink it daily, yet peopel are going goo goo over it. It’s so normalized. #proudtobesober
Asks if everyone here works in the environmental sector? They said its opened up to anyone. So a few people raised their hands and said they’re random people, myself included. LOL.
BTW the bike ride over here was one of hte most fun rides of my life. An insane insane crazy cool road hahaha. IT was so funny and unreal.
Now this random attendee guy answers his phone and says hello! Yeah? Yeah? I’m in a meeting… and then walks off. The guy who said we’re between this and a cold beer.
They give tours pretty regularly. Modeled after the cross-the-river steel company (which a girl invited me to join) - invited the community and people to come check it out.
People wonder what is going on over here. So tehy started offering tours last year. It was a pretty big hit, lots of people from lots of walks of life and interest came and learned more. This is unique in that the tour was advertised for organization members and people in and around the environmental filed. But also tours are offered to the general public. This tour will mostly be about environmental people
Nucor steel offers tours on Thursdays. You have to be 18+. About an hour and a half, two hour, and it will ruin your fourth July. When you walk through there, 4th of Julyuly will never compare. You will feel.
It’s an amazing tour. As long as you’re a west seattle resident. You call and there’s a bit of a wait list. Let them know you want to join the tour. THEy’ll schedule you in. They walk you through the process of material coming in through leaving the facility. Steel manufacturing.
It’s pretty massive and a really cool tour. Very cool. Something you need to do if you’re from the area.
Just tell them you’re a West Seattle resident and they’ give you a tour. Put it on your list.
The glass plant has a tour too. If you don’t have the right foots - they won’t let you in. Safety measures.
Just call the main office and let them know.
The glass plant may be getting decommissioned. They were making a lot of things there. But they’re getting closed. Another one up north closed about 5 years ago.
Make the steel plant a tour in the very near future. That’s as far as I’m going to say - he says, implying that it may shut down too. WOW really????
One girl likes manufacturing plants, likes any manufacturing thing. Me too. So cool.
Okay he says let’s get into the presentation and then talk about the air and waste management and this company. The manufacturing process here. Then get into the tour and start seeing everything.
The nonprofit is meant to be a gathering space for environmental professionals to share knowledge, network, and promote global environmental responsibility.
He said his predecessor was part of this group and then got him to join and take this job. This guy is younger than me lol. I mean, I’m getting older so thats not a big deal.
One of the big draws and a big event is its annual conference. November 4-6, 2026. With panels and vendors and a good opportunity to meet people in your field. The national conference will be in Austin and then the PNW will be in Alaska.
Pack a jacket or two. A great opportunity to network and be in Alaska for a couple of days.
In addition, the association pus on multiple specialty conferences
One on data centers
Air queslity motels
PFAS
Odor management
Etc
The mission is to assist and improve environmental knowledge and decisions by providing a neutral forum for exchanging information. They have tours, happy hours, webinars. Yeah. Lots of good ways to get involved.
This company has been here, purchased the plant in 1984. Then got bought out in 2018 by an Irish company. Not just cement, but building materials, aggregates, paving, stormwater roads, eco materials, SCMs (supplementary materials to dilute carbon footprint). etc.
12 plants in North America and 2,500 employees. (About 80 people here at this plant) - omg not a lot for this huge place!!
They have the capacity to store 14.0MT of cement
This is the least producing plant in the entire repoirtoire.
Other plants have 2 kilos. W’ere making waht we can to supply the Washington market made here rather than abroad and shipped over.
A lot of hte cement kilns are participating in an alternate fuel program. We’ll talk more about it in the presentation.
A good way to get rid of waste is to burn it in a cement kilt and destroy pollutants.
History:
1928: Pacific Coast Company starts the cement plant at this location
1931: Leased to Superior Portland Cement Company
1946: Operated by Kaiser Cement Company
1956: Sold to Lone Start Industries
1984: Ash Grove CEment
1990: Commissioning of new kiln complete
2018: Ash grove acquired by CRH
I am so skeptical of history haha. I’m like, really? Are we sure this is the full story? Idk.
Wow they have pictures from 1920 and 1930. And it growing over time. But still… not convinced.
Co processing 1.2m tires per year. Home to a quadruped autonomous robots.
A yellow dog robot that scares him but its actually good. IT has an HD camera, ultrasound thermal. It walks on automated routes scanning everything and looking for high temperatures, air leaks, deficiencies. It comes up with its own work requests.
- the model is from Boston dynamics. Theyhave two - one rests while the first one goes.
They’re called “astro” and “prime”
It goes upstairs and downstairs. Sometimes it falls or gets stuck. We had a few torn ACLs on the dog. Send it back, it gets repaired.
Are we gonna see it?
The dog wranglers have gone home for the day . Lots of people live outside the city limits and travel a long ways.
The process of making cement:
Binding elements in both concrete and mortar = cement
- made of limestone, clay, shells, silica and sand
Sets and hardens when combined with water
CONCRETE: made of cement, sand, and grave.l
Making cement is similar to making bread.
Both need a good recipe, good ingredients, sieve the ground up rocks (no lumps)
Mix thoroughly, bake it at the right temperature for the right time
Cool it
Prepare the next batch (but no, they keep it continuous, 11 months of hte year)
Their oven takes about 24 Horus to preheat and gets up to 2500 degrees.
One month of hte year they do a maintenance overhaul. Replace broken things and get ahead of the game.
Cement starts with quarrying limestone and crushing limestone. Then storage of prehomogenization of raw materials. Mining of iron ore sand. Then the raw mill, filter, and raw materials homogenization. Then you preheat and make pulverized coal. Then calcination-burning raw meal to the clinker. Cool it with pulverized coal. Then clinker is stored, add secondary additives. Then cement mills, cement storage, and then finally cement dispatch bags are sent in bulk.
Shale is aluminum. Silica makes silicon. Slag is a millscale from a zinc smelter. That is an iron source. — those all combine, grind up that with limestone and some alternative waste from different industries - then you get a uniform flowery powder - we call it Kiln Feed cause we feed it into the kiln. Then it turns into clinker (the precursor to cement)
LOL I’m lovin gthis like overly dorky/informational talk about cement hahahahha
Then cement and gypsum are ground together. You need to delay the set time to allow operators to pour and work with it.
A lot of things arrive via barge. Two barges of limestone a week and shale every week or other week. Slag comes in by rail car. Silica has two sources - some is more local and other is from the two James hardy plants that they have south of here. We take their rejects, the product they can’t use for siding and turn it back into cement.
Also occasionally get a spent catalyst fro marathon. Reccled concrete we get - when finished with heir pour, wash out whatever is in their truck, then we press and filter out the aggragets. Then we take the filter cake and take it back and make cement out of it.
Hahahhahah this is so funny/amazing. I’m so excited for this tour.
And no joke, the bike here was so fun. I was like talking about to myself saying how fun and crazy it was. A crazy crazy road I was on. I took so many selfies there just like wtf this is HILARIOUS. Idk if it translated well to image. But it was amazing.
We used to burn coal and finished around 2016. Now the primary fuel is natural gas. The rest is from old tires.
ARM (Alternative raw materials) - anytime they can take an industry byproduct… if it has any kind of meaning fun content of these four minerals (silica, limestone, alumina, iron) then its a chance to take advantage of singularity.
Burning tires and waste is adventageous. Any sorta nasty pollutant or byproduct gets completely destroyed. Any ash gets absorbed int the clinker. There’s no solid waste from burning the tires.
People imagine a bunch of black smog/smoke from burning a bunch of tires, but the temperatures are too high that everything gets completely destroyed. We also get heat input out of it. IMO, a decent alternative and better to having the tires take up space in the landfill.
What can be recycled in a cement kiln? Some are permitted to burn hazardous waste. Three of them are, but not ours. Only non-hazardous waste. Tires fall into that category. Thank you. That’s it for the presentation. Well get suited up and get ready to start the tour.
AFTER THE TOUR (it was so loud on the tour I didn’t hear anything hardly, but I jsut had like EVERY emotion on it hahahahha)
WOW this tour was WAY too fun and freaky in a good way. SO FUN. Hahahahah omg. So fun. But totally spooky and amazing and I was ready for it to be over hahahaha.
I even had to borrow shoes. LOL and my adrenaline was THROUGH THE ROOF at this event. Liek 10,000% wild. hahahha and cement fell on my head at one point that fell off a conveyor belt but i had a hard hat on so it was fine>. 😂
Now here are some GIFs I made from the eventt!!!
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
