Television personality Fred Rogers once said, “Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” This is true of many demolition projects; something old has reached the end of its usefulness, and it’s being demolished to make way for something new. It might be a building, a parking lot, a roadway, or a sidewalk, and there are usually plans to put something new in that space.
Beyond the use of the space, however, the sentiment also applies to recycling. Construction and demolition can generate a lot of waste, but many of those materials can be recycled to find new life, oftentimes right at the demolition-turn-construction job site.
Concrete aggregate is a great example of this. Concrete pavement, walkways, driveways, and even structural concrete can be crushed down and recycled to be reused in a number of ways.
Uses for recycled aggregate include:
- As gravel for new construction projects
- As a sub-base layer for roads, highways, driveways, and parking lots made of either asphalt or concrete
- As a dry aggregate to create new concrete
- Fill to prevent erosion
- As a substitute for landscaping mulch or stone
- Fill for retaining walls
Many companies utilize on-site machinery to crush demolition concrete to prepare it to be reused, often in the same job site’s new construction. There are many aggregate recycling machines of different sizes to handle the needs of each demolition and construction project.
There are numerous benefits to recycling aggregate, and the majority of these benefits deal with the environment, though the cost of a project can be a focus as well. Benefits of recycling aggregate include:
- Keeping construction and demolition waste out of landfills
- Conserves the natural environment by reducing the need for gravel mining
- Cuts down on pollution generated from shipping new gravel to a job site and transporting waste to landfills
- Creates jobs
- Saves water compared with using natural aggregate
- Lowers the expenses of a construction project
Recycling concrete aggregate elevates concrete from a good product to a great product. We are proud to work with this versatile and sustaining product.