Concrete recycling is becoming an increasingly popular way to utilize aggregate left behind when structures or roadways are demolished. In the past, this rubble was disposed of in landfills, but with more attention being paid to environmental concerns, concrete recycling allows reuse of the rubble while also keeping construction costs down.

The concrete recycling process involves some fairly large machinery.

The main machinery of in concrete recycling is a kind of concrete recycling crusher that crushes up large blocks of unwanted concrete into small pieces, which will fall onto a screen. Pieces that are small enough to be "harvested" fall through the screen mesh, and larger pieces are re-routed back to the crusher to crush them into smaller pieces.

Concrete recycling machine

The other main piece of machinery is basically a big magnet to remove rebar and other metal grid-work that may be inside the concrete.

Concrete that is free of foreign objects is easy to recycle, and having large magnets to remove the rebar is safer and easier than doing it by hand. Concrete crushers and magnets may be mobile or stationary Concrete Crusher. With the growing popularity of recycling concrete and re-use of recycled concrete on-site, mobile crusher systems are becoming more common. Some can crush up to 600 tons of concrete per hour.

Mobile crushers are self-contained units that can crush up to 150 tons of concrete per hour while fitting into a much smaller area. Crusher attachments, such as conveyors and magnets, are making the popularity of mini-crushers increase rapidly.

While they can "only" handle 150 tons per hour, for concrete that is to be recycled on-site, they're effective. Recycled concrete is most often used as sub-base gravel in new construction projects. That is the lowest layer put down when a new road is built, and fresh concrete or asphalt is poured over top of it.

Construction Waste Plant

Crushed concrete also works as dry aggregate for new concrete. If the crushed concrete is free of contaminants, it can be used as-is in the form of dry aggregate. Sometimes, however, virgin aggregate is combined with recycled, crushed concrete for making new concrete. Large pieces of crushed concrete can be used for control of erosion, and finely ground concrete can sometimes be used as landscaping stone. Retaining walls and privacy fences can be made from stacked cages filled with crushed concrete. Disposing of concrete in a landfill is becoming expensive enough to encourage recycling efforts. Additionally, the use of recycled crushed concrete as aggregate on-site can save 50 to 60% over the costs of using new aggregate.