 | ||
When structures made of concrete are demolished or renovated, concrete recycling is an increasingly common method of utilizing the rubble. Concrete was once routinely trucked to landfills for disposal, but recycling has a number of benefits that have made it a more attractive option in this age of greater environmental awareness, more environmental laws, and the desire to keep construction costs down.
Contents
Concrete aggregate collected from demolition sites is put through a crushing machine. Crushing facilities accept only uncontaminated concrete, which must be free of trash, wood, paper and other such materials. Metals such as rebar are accepted, since they can be removed with magnets and other sorting devices and melted down for recycling elsewhere. The remaining aggregate chunks are sorted by size. Larger chunks may go through the crusher again. After crushing has taken place, other particulates are filtered out through a variety of methods including hand-picking and water flotation.
Crushing at the actual construction site using portable crushers reduces construction costs and the pollution generated when compared with transporting material to and from a quarry. Large road-portable plants can crush concrete and asphalt rubble at 600 tons per hour or more. These systems normally consist of a rubble crusher, side discharge conveyor, screening plant, and a return conveyor from the screen to the crusher inlet for reprocessing oversize materials. Compact, self-contained mini-crushers are also available that can handle up to 150 tons per hour and fit into tighter areas. With the advent of crusher attachments - those connected to various construction equipment, such as excavators - the trend towards recycling on-site with smaller volumes of material is growing rapidly. These attachments encompass volumes of 100 tons/hour and less.
Uses of recycled concrete
Smaller pieces of concrete are used as gravel for new construction projects. Sub-base gravel is laid down as the lowest layer in a road, with fresh concrete or asphalt poured over it. The US Federal Highway Administration may use techniques such as these to build new highways from the materials of old highways. Crushed recycled concrete can also be used as the dry aggregate for brand new concrete if it is free of contaminants. Also, concrete pavements can be broken in place and used as a base layer for an asphalt pavement through a process called rubblization.
Larger pieces of crushed concrete can be used as riprap revetments, which are "a very effective and popular method of controlling streambank erosion."
With proper quality control at the crushing facility, well graded and aesthetically pleasing materials can be provided as a substitute for landscaping stone or mulch.
Wire gabions (cages), can be filled with crushed concrete and stacked together to provide economical retaining walls. Stacked gabions are also used to build privacy screen walls (in lieu of fencing).
Benefits
There are a variety of benefits in recycling concrete rather than dumping it or burying it in a landfill.
Lead paint contamination
There have been concerns about the recycling of painted concrete due to possible lead content. The Army Corps of Engineers' Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) and others have conducted studies to see if lead-based paint in crushed concrete actually poses a hazard. It was concluded that concrete with lead-based paint would be able to be used as clean fill without impervious cover but with some type of soil cover.