2011 C&D Recycling Forum: Concrete Examples

Members of the public are still learning about it, but contractors and recyclers are keenly aware of the many concrete recycling options available. In a session at the C&D Recycling Forum, held in Baltimore in late September, attendees heard from two speakers with updates in this sector.

Paul Valenti of Southern Waste Systems and Sun Recycling, Lantana, Fla., showed a South Florida TV news clip that focused on a local demolition project. Bystanders at the demolition scene, when asked, guessed that the rubble produced would be going to the landfill or “the dump.”

In the clip, Patti Hamilton of Sun Recycling (www.southernwastesystems.com) tells the TV audience that instead, “around 90 percent” of the rubble generated at the demolished library site will be recycled.

Valenti told attendees that recycling the concrete portion in the South Florida region has had its challenges in the past few years, with many end markets slumping along with the construction industry.

A second video clip, this one produced by Sun Recycling, showed how the company found a home for crushed concrete in the booming equestrian arena market in the region. The material is used as a sub-base and in other applications at such dressage arenas.

Paul Smith, product development manager at the KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens divisions of Astec, told attendees that equipment makers have broadened their product lines to serve a wider number of job sites, including those generating smaller volumes of material.

For larger job sites, companies like KPI-JCI (www.kpijci.com) provide “line processing” systems that can move in tandem as a contractor makes progress removing and recycling existing roadways involving many miles of material.

Smaller units have been designed as well, including crushers on wheels and tracks, where “the advantage is jobsite mobility,” said Smith.

He said KPI-JCI designs such machines to contain fewer adjustment points or tasks and to have pre-set chute angles that make them easier to use for “a less seasoned workforce” or companies just getting their start in the concrete recycling business.

In response to an audience question, Smith said his sense is that states are permitting an increasingly wider use of recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) as paving contractors have increasingly supported the practice. In part they are attracted to reusing old asphalt to capture the 6 percent oil content after petroleum costs escalated. “It’s worth whatever it replaces,” said Smith.

The 2011 C&D Recycling Forum was Sept. 25-27 at the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center in Ellicott City, Md.