For several years a small group of Duluthians operated a skate park business.

Over time, that business shredded and the group began to look for alternative means to make money.

What they had on hand was a lot of the material used to make skate park ramps... so the group decided to use that material to make kitchen cutting boards.

"We had excess and we knew it came from the commercial kitchen industry so we developed a cutting board line," says company owner Dave Benson.

They called their company "Epicurean" and the quality cutting boards sell around the world.

As that business took off Dave Benson and his partners looked to branch out, starting another company called Loll Designs.

Using their same recycled material they developed a line of lawn furniture.

With these businesses flourishing Benson decided to put their skate park enterprise up for sale.

"The skate park business was really starting to slow down and it just made sense for us to focus our time and energy on the other two businesses that were really taking off," says Benson.

Despite the current economy, Epicurean and Loll Designs are seeing great success.

"I think that's pretty fun to just continue to take an idea and try to turn it into something," says Benson.

Some of the waste at the Epicurean and Loll Design factory is also sent over to the Hibbard Power Plant to be burned as biomass.

If you are interested in either of these company's products you can log onto www.epicureancs.com or www.lolldesigns.com