Environmentally-Smart SURPStone: Love + Plastic

Jill Layton has a love/hate relationship with plastic, especially the single-use type that clogs landfills and degrades the environment. She hates that. But as the founder and owner of SURPStone, a company that utilizes shredded plastic as aggregate in concrete, she has come to appreciate “orphan” plastics, which she intentionally repurposes in her warehouse workspace at the Grand Junction Business Incubator Center (BIC).

SURPStone stands for Single-Use Repurposed Plastic Stone. “We take unusable plastics that don’t have an affordable end market and use this plastic in place of pebbles and sand in concrete,” Layton explains. This mixture is used to create unique landscaping pavers and garden tiles.

Speaking at a ribbon cutting for SURPStone in November 2024, Layton shared her passion for waste reduction. “I love reusing anything if I can make it into something new. SURPStone allows me to make an impact on the community I love by removing plastic waste from our landfill, and creating something new and enduring from it by turning trash plastic into eco-groovy aggregate.”

Photos by Robyn Miley, the Business Incubator Center

Layton’s company is an example of a circular economy, where trash is utilized in a novel way for economic gain, rather than hitting the landfill. She collects plastic from four primary sources: Curbside Recycling, a local engineering firm, eBricks and BIC. Examples of the plastic items SURPStone collects include toy building bricks, plastic hangers, toothbrushes and single-use containers.

The Business Incubator Center is thrilled to have SURPStone on its campus. “When businesses like SURPStone succeed, the entire community benefits,” explains BIC’s Robyn Miley. “We are always interested when a unique idea like Jill’s comes through our Incubator Intensive Program. Supporting economic diversity is central to our mission, which means working with businesses across many industries. A business rooted in circular economy adds an important and timely dimension to that mix.”

Now moving into her second year of commercial production, Layton has numerous retail partners carrying her decorative tiles and landscaping pavers. For 2026, consumers can find SURPStone products at New Way Refillery and Bookcliff Gardens in Grand Junction, Fruita True Value, Co-op Country in Palisade and Delta Ace Hardware. She is also forging partnerships with construction companies, such as Willow Wind Construction, who are using SURPStone landscaping pavers at a larger scale.

Layton shares that garden tiles, especially those shaped like paws, are her biggest sellers, noting that if consumers would like a memorial stone for their pet, she is happy to work with them to incorporate ashes and/or pet toys shredded into the stone. Other hot sellers include heart, turtle and frog-shaped stones. As for pavers, 12-inch square mosaic tiles and tiles resembling wooden planks are popular.

Moving forward, Layton hopes to develop a pre-made bagged concrete mix that can be sold directly to consumers, a process that will require extensive engineering and testing. Maintaining a high-quality product is important to Layton. “I have to make sure that I’m happy with the product that I put out,” she says, “because I care about it and I don’t want people to look at the idea of a recycled product and think that it doesn’t work.”

SURPStone is a major career change for Layton, who previously worked in publishing, human resources and office administration. When she enrolled at Colorado Mesa University (CMU), Layton was interested in graphic design. Then in her first class she was asked to list three things she was good at, three of her hobbies and three things she would do if money was no object. From this, SURPStone emerged as a venture which would feed her passion for sustainability. She credits CMU faculty for their support, BIC for their numerous business assistance programs and her life partner Jonathan Belk, who provided an initial investment.

Reflecting on what she laughingly calls “making mud pies,” Layton admits that SURPStone is her dream job. “It combines so many of the things that I was good at in my early career and made it all into something that matters to me. If you are going to have a business, you better love it or you’re going to burn out real fast,” she explains, adding, “I love it.”

Originally published in the spring 2026 issue of Spoke+Blossom.