Save with the Concrete Recycling Alternative

Save with the Concrete Recycling Alternative

The costs of landfill related to construction, demolition, and land-clearance debris continue to rise and as existing landfill facilities become subject to more severe regulations, it becomes economically sound to employ alternative means of waste disposal. This particularly applies to concrete from construction and demolition sites. It has become apparent that sites are increasingly becoming more cost and environmental-friendly, by contractors effectively incorporating recycling into their disposal operations.

The American Concrete Pavement Association has determined that the recycling of concrete paving is a relatively easy process. It involves a procedure of breaking, removing and crushing concrete from an existing structure into a material of a particular quality and size. It may be reused as an aggregate in cement concrete or other structural layers. Although usually combined with a virgin aggregate when utilized in new concrete; recycled concrete is more often frequently found as aggregate in a sub-base layer.

Various developments have made recycling concrete more economical for all types of concrete pavements in recent years, with methods that decrease the amount of hands-on labor needed. Among them is crushing equipment, able to incorporate steel reinforcement. This is added to by the fact that there are no limitations on the types of concrete pavements that can be recycled. Success has been achieved with economical recycling projects that included jointed plain pavement and reinforced pavement, as well as continuously reinforced pavement and airport paving with a density of over 17 inches.

There are options regarding the type of recycling used, with concrete either being hauled from a demolition site to the recycling plant or, portable recycling equipment being installed on-site! This has the advantage of significant savings in transportation costs. When our environment is taken into consideration, recycling concrete provides significant savings in energy in comparison to the mining, processing and transporting of new aggregates.

Save with the Concrete Recycling Alternative