Using portable plants to recycle concrete saves money and time when compared to hauling demolished concrete to landfills. Recycling also gives a second life to this useful resource, reducing our need for virgin aggregate.  

Without a doubt, concrete is the most widely used construction material on the planet. It resists weathering, requires very little maintenance, and can set in both wet and dry conditions. On top of all of this, it’s also incredibly strong! With so much of our infrastructure built with concrete, there’s no shortage of recyclable material to collect when demolitions happen. Any structure made of concrete—whether it be a sidewalk, bridge, or building—can be recycled. 

Why Recycle Concrete?

Sometimes landfills will charge up to $300 per tonne as a tipping fee. In general, a cubic metre of concrete weighs 2.4 tonnes, totalling around $720 for landfill disposal. You can already see how expensive it would be to throw out an entire building’s worth of the stuff, not to mention the fuel and manpower required to haul the concrete from a worksite to a landfill. 

Using a portable concrete recycling plant, you can filter out any metal particulates (like rebar) from concrete, and then perform crushing duties with an impact crusher, jaw crusher, or cone crusher. Plus, all of this would happen on-site! 

What Is Recycled Concrete Used For?

Recycled concrete is great to use as a base material under asphalt roads, parking lots, subways, sewer systems and much more. An important consideration to keep in mind when recycling concrete is to know whether it’s from a high- or low-density source. Since these two types have different applications, they need to be kept separate. Quality control is particularly important as the two types of concrete look very similar. 

Selecting The Correct Crusher

If you’re recycling a granite-based concrete, you will need to use a jaw crusher and cone crusher combination. Granite-based concrete is incredibly hard and strong, but these two crushers can do the job while keeping regular operating and maintenance costs low. However, when using these crushers it is vital that all metal particles be removed prior to crushing. If metals make their way into the crushers, there is a risk of significant maintenance issues and possible delays. 

If you’re recycling a limestone-based concrete, then a portable impact crusher plant works best. This type of crusher is much more tolerant of metal and foreign objects, yet is strong enough to crush the softer limestone material. 

At Carminex, we have experience mounting all types of jaw, cone, and impact crushers to portable plants. This includes the Sepro Blackhawk cone crusher and Grizzly-King jaw crusher, as well as Metso™, Sandvik™ and Telsmith™ products. The portable plants can also be equipped with powerful magnets to prevent metal materials from entering the crushers. To learn more about our portable plants or to get your own custom mobile solution, contact Sepro Aggregates at 1.450.922.0900.