C&D News

Excavator Finds Success Recycling Concrete

Innovative Crushing & Aggregate, Louisville, Ky., initially got into recycling as a matter of self-defense, according to Jim Bierman, president. Bierman’s excavating business, started by his father in 1950 in nearby Floyds Knobs, Ind., was doing well and producing so much concrete and asphalt rubble and other demolition debris that he was having trouble finding places to dispose of the material. As a result, Bierman decided to purchase about five acres of property already containing several tons of concrete rubble and started investigating the concrete recycling business.

"I’m very glad I did," says Bierman. "Now I recycle all my own excavation rubble and some of what was present on my newly-purchased property. I also recycle debris trucked in by construction and demolition contractors for miles around. Some dump their rubble and leave empty. Others leave with a load of recycled materials for road beds, parking lots, building foundations, backfill, cover and so on."

In order to process the material, Bierman purchased a Grasan diesel-powered crushing plant with a Hazemag 1315 impactor designed especially for recycling, a Grasan 48-inch by 40-foot side discharge conveyor with a Dings electromagnetic separator mounted in-line for smooth material flow, a Grasan 36-inch by 60-foot screen-fed conveyor, a Grasan 6-foot by 16-foot screening plant with Tyler three-deck screen, two Grasan 30-inch by 75-foot radial stackers, a 160 kw Caterpillar diesel generator unit in a 40-foot trailer, and a full electrical control system. All equipment is road portable and can be set up and torn down quickly without a crane. The impact crusher can handle more than 300 tons per hour of C&D rubble, and more than 400 tons per hour of shot limestone.

City Uses Mixed Glass Cullet in Roadbeds

Mixed glass cullet accidentally generated through collection and processing of glass containers from curbside recycling has traditionally been a difficult material to market. Now, the city of Oberlin, Ohio, has developed a proposal to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention to help fund the construction of a 675-foot section of unimproved street that will incorporate 125 tons of mixed glass cullet as a sub-base ingredient.

Most of the cullet is generated from the city’s recycling program. A variety of other recycled-content products will also be used in constructing the street, including ductile iron pipes, recycled high density polyethylene water lines, and recycled concrete catch basins and manholes.

"I believe we have a problem – glass breakage in collection and processing at material recovery facilities – and a viable solution: the use of mixed cullet in construction fill applications," says Jeffrey Baumann, Oberlin’s recycling coordinator.