Concrete Recycling

Concrete Recycling

Not sure what items around your house are suitable for recycling? This series of pages will cover all materials that an informed layman and consumer should be aware of regarding most commonly known recyclable materials- things like paper, Styrofoam, ink cartridges, and plastic water bottles.

We will also discuss some materials that are not widely known to be recyclable like rubber and appliances. There should be special attention given to materials that are poorly understood and/or hard to recycle.

Concrete Recycling / Growing in Popularity

The concept of concrete recycling has slowly started getting popular in recent times. While concrete structures are demolished, the recycling of concrete remains an increasingly known procedure of disposing of the rubble.

Concrete debris was once routinely shipped to landfills for the purpose of disposal. However, recycling will certainly make this material a viable option in this age of greater environmental awareness as well as adhering to a desire to keep construction costs down.

Concrete Recycling / What is recycled concrete?

Concrete aggregate is collected from demolition sites before being put through a crushing machine. Besides the concrete other materials are gathered like asphalt, bricks, dirt as well as rocks. Crushing facilities accept only uncontaminated concrete.

This type of concrete must be free of trash, wood, paper and other such materials. However, amongst all the metals, rebar is accepted, since it can be removed with the help of magnets and other sorting devices. These products can be melted down for recycling purposes elsewhere. While classifying the rest of the lot size of the material plays a bigger role. The chunks that are large enough may go through the crusher once again.

Why Recycle?

The procedure of crushing at the actual construction site while utilizing various portable crushers actually reduces the construction costs. The pollution generated, in this process while compared with transporting material to and from a quarry, remains at a much lower level.

Experts have pointed out that large road-portable plants can crush concrete and asphalt rubble at up to 600 tons every hour or even in one more speed.

These plants, in most of the cases, normally have a rubble crusher, side discharge conveyor, screening plant and one return conveyor. These gadgets are compact, self-contained mini-crushers that can handle up to 150 tons, every year.

Concrete Recycling / Sources

http://www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/rrr/imr/cdm/bytype.htm
http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/demolition/recycling_concrete.htm

Find a place that recycles concrete near you...

Local/Denver http://www.denverwater.org/WaterQuality/RecycledWater/FAQs/
Australia http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/water/reuse/reuse.asp

For more information on recycling concrete near you just input the phrase, recycling concrete in 'your area' in your search engine search bar. Or go to earth911.com.

For more information on other types of materials that can be recycled and about why recycling is important follow these links:

What Materials Can Be Recycled

Recycling Ink Cartridges

Recycling Metals

Recycling Old Computers

Recycling Paper

PET Recycling

Recycling Plastic Bottles