concrete recycling 3

[minimus]

I have happened upon a large quantity of old concrete from demolition. does anyone have uses other than fill. Most of the concrete is about 40N if it matters!

 

[dicksewerrat]

Crush it, grade it and sell it as road base. It will have some free concrete and it will compact well

 

[dicksewerrat]

I meant free cement. A little water while compacting will allow the cement to rehydrate.

 

[minimus]

Thanks Dicksewerrat, but does anyone know about uses as a recycled aggregate in new mixe? Is there a market for this?

 

[howie331]

DOT's are fairly stringent on aggregate specifications for concrete and typically require the use "virgin" aggregate and not "recycled" aggregate except for steel slag and a few other exceptions. The availability of aggreagte is a key question. Living in northwest ohio, the sources of quality limestone are vast, making it fairly inexpensive and does not leave much use for recycled aggregates in concrete. Check into your area's aggregate availability, DOT's requirements for concrete aggregate and contact a concrete producer for further guidance. You will probably find not much use for crushed concrete except for fill, aggregate base, and/or quality stone road material.

 

[jrfosterjr]

Not sure about where you are, but around here, brick is often crushed and sold as landscape bedding in place of mulch. It looks good and is obviously durable and low maintenance. I would imagine that in some areas of the country that crushed concrete could be used for the same purpose and be a nice visual addition to the landscape. Just a thought.
Jeff Foster, PE
CE Group, Inc.
Apex, NC

 

[Violeta]

Hi minimus,

there have been actually some experiences on using old concrete from demolition as recycled aggregate for new concrete. I know this has been carried out in the Netherlands, Spain and Japan. The percentage of substitution of normal aggregate by recycled one is limited because of alterations in resistence, shrinkage, porosity and other properties. But sure you can use it as aggregate in certain amount. You can contact the following groups:

Dr. Enric Vázquez, Dr. Marilda Barra
Construction Engineering Department (Construction Materials Section)
Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain)

http://www-ec.upc.es/dec-eng.htm

Dr. Kazuhizo Iida, Dr. Shigeyoshi Nagataki, Tatsuhiko Saeki
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture
Niigata University (Japan)
(Dr. Iida is also at Technology Center of Taisei Corporation)

The Japanese group has also studied the possibility of recycling the fine demolition waste for cement manufacturing.

Some published references are:

Committee of the Japan Cement Association (1998) Effective reuse of the powder produced from demolished concrete. Cement & concrete, Nº 621, pp. 52 – 59.

Iida K., Saeki T., Nagataki S. (2001) An integrated concrete recycling system including cement. Concrete library of JSCE, Nº 38, pp. 95 – 103.

Karlsson M. (1998) Reactivity in mortar phase in recycled concrete aggregate. Use of recycled concrete aggregate, pp. 197 – 203.

Tomosawa F. (1995) Towards perfect recycling of concrete. Cement & concrete, Nº 578, pp. 1 – 8.

van Loo W. (1998) Closing the concrete loop – from reuse to recycling. Use of recycled concrete aggregate, pp. 83 – 97.

Vàzquez E. (2000) Recycling of aggregates in Spain. Proc. International Workshop on Recycled Concrete, pp. 27 – 41.

Winkler A., Müeller H.A. (1998) Recycling of fine processed building rubble materials. Use of recycled concrete aggregate, pp. 157 – 168.

Finally, I strongly reccomend you to search for some experiences in the Netherlands (maybe contacting prof. van Loo, from ENCI, a Netherlands company), because I think they have the widest knowledge about it and it may be preferable for you to contact with companies directly instead of universities. I'll ask prof. Vazquez at Univ. Politecnica if he can provide me any contact and I'll let you know.

Regards,

Violeta.

 

[Violeta]

Hi,

I've just talked to Dr. Enric Vazquez at Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, and he said you can contact him directly at enric.vazquez@upc.es
He will tell you about the practical experiences in this field and the possible contacts.

Violeta.

 

[minimus]

Thanks for all the information violeta!

 

[dicksewerrat]

If you crush some of your product and then test it the same way aggregate is tested locally you may be pleasantly surprised.

 

[KRSServices]

As long as it has the steel removed, it can be crushed and utilized as road base. It is expensive though, and removal of the steel is costly. But if it relatively free of steel, putting it through a crusher works great. KRS Services

http://www.krs-services.com

 

[mdszj]

I am working on a demo project in New Jersey that includes disposal of 4,000 tons of old concrete. My choices for disposal were: 1. recycling it to be used in roadbeds, etc. (cost of up to approx $5/ton depending on whether it has rebar); and 2) disposing as waste in a landfill (cost approx $65/ton). By recycling it we stand to save approx $240,000. I did not include trans costs in here, assuming you need to have trans using either option, same distance. However, if distances to facilities differ depending on option chosen, this will come into play.

Apparently, at least in NJ, there is a good demand for recycled condrete. Hope this helps you.

 

[gibfrog]

In the last 10 of so commercial parking lots that I designed (in central Florida), recycled crushed 3000 psi concrete was used as the base material in lieu of limerock, shell or soil cement. Works great.

Clifford H Laubstein
FL PE 58662

 

[dallascontracting]

Fill would be the most approriate use of the crushed concrete material. with proper sizing and a good crushing unit, you can obtain one inch minus material which compact great. If you need assistance, please do not hesiaite to contact me

Damon Kozul, PE, CHMM
Dallas Contracting Co., Inc.

http://www.dallascontracting.com

(908) 668-0600

 

[greenone]

As to using the crushed concrete for mulch, you have to make sure it is compatible with your plants. Acid loving plants will wither up!

 

[iandig]

With the constant drive to re-cycle and re-use materials, in Europe now (not just UK, as we have European Standards EN, fantastic!!). The result of this is that aggregate may be made from re-cycled concrete, and it goes by the name of RCC (Re-cycled Concrete Aggregate). Currently, there is a maximum percentage of RCC which is permitted into different concrete mxes, with the max about 19% from memory. In order to be allowed into a mix, the RCC must meet all the same criteria as if it was a primary source. The new EN standards are applied Europen wide, and can be quite confusing, hence each individual Country have their own guidance documents. The EN for concrete aggregates is EN 12620 (BS EN 12620 in UK), and the guidance document which is in proper English, is PD 6682-1. The final part of the acceptance of the material for use as an aggregate in concrete is the undertaking of succesful trial mixes.
So, what does this all mean? The advice would be crush and grade the concrete to form an aggregate. Undertake normal approval testing on the aggregate as if it was a prime source, then carry out a series of trial mixes, using variations in addition of RCC to Prime source aggregate, as well as the normal WCR and cement contents.

 

[crushers]

i just stumbled across this forum.
just wanted to let you know we have a solution for alot of these high cost associated with Concrete and Asphalt recycling.
i find the figures for recycling in NJ staggering. More reason to check us out with our new machinery that was just introduced first of the Year.
The CRUSH-ALL - One of a kind machine.

http://www.rrequipment.com

 

[dallascontracting]

We have found the best method is to employ a onsite concrete crushing operation. This consists of sizing and sorting the materials for input into a concrete crushing plant. We utilize an eagle concrete crushing plant. the processed material is about 2 inch minus and can be used as backfill or road base. Dallas Contracting Co., Inc. has performed numerous concrete crushing and recycling projects. contact me if you need further information.

Damon Kozul, PE, CHMM
Dallas Contracting Co., Inc.

http://www.dallascontracting.com

(908) 668-0600

 

[crushers]

Hey Guys, I have throughly enjoyed reading some of your responses to this growing trend. We are manufactures of a Portable Crushing Unit that is taking off all over the country. We have found that smaller demolition contractors, who cant afford a huge crushing plant, are in great demands for this. Like it has already been mentioned, and i appreciate him saying what he did, MDSZJ disposal can be very costly. Alot of these guys are buying crushers just to process what they need but are finding out very quickly that there is a huge market for recycling and alot of money to be made at it. We hope that more people will look into recycling before they pay some one to dump it. People in Ohio are doing the same with the paving stones as was mentioned about the brick and using it for landscaping.
THere are so many options. CHECK US OUT IF YOU HAVE A CHANCE!

http://www.crush-all.com

thanks Guys

 

[iandig]

This thread just seems to run and run. If you are thinking of going down the route of recycling (re-using a material for equivalent or better grade than original use) as opposed to down-cycling (re-using for lower grade use), then there is lots of useful data out there if you know where to look.
Try logging on to

http://www.wrap.org.uk

This is a UK Government funded organisation which provides advice on, as well as documented evidence of succesful uses for recycled materials, and there is some very good stuff on this exact subject. Just ignore the local suppliers, they are a bit far from the US for local delivery!