Construction and demolition waste recycling

Rapid urbanization and population growth have increased the demand for new housing, urban environments and infrastructure.

While roads, buildings and bridges are renovated and renewed, massive amounts of construction and demolition waste is generated around the world.

To cope with both rising stockpiles of waste and yet growing need for raw materials, governments have started to impose new environmental regulations encouraging to use recycled materials instead of natural resources.

Waste rarely is a good news. The silver lining, however, is that construction and demolition waste is not in the end of its lifecycle, quite the opposite. It is an endless source of raw materials for various purposes and products.

Many of the challenges in processing construction and demolition waste are caused by the variable properties of the materials. By nature, the waste generated at demolition sites is bulky and often heavy, which increases transportation costs.

Reducing the waste to smaller and uniform grain size makes it easier and faster to handle. Furthermore, the different materials can be separated from each other earlier in the recycling process, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.

The closer the worksite this processing is done, the less there is need for expensive and time-consuming loading, unloading, and truck traffic to and from the site, which not only costs but also generates unnecessary emissions and safety risks for the workers.