Markets Are Set in Concrete

In North America, new buildings continue to go up, highways are widening and leading to newly developed areas, and bridges and roads in an already impressive infrastructure are now being replaced.

This combination of factors has kept the construction industry strong and the demand for aggregate products steady. And to help fill that demand, recycled concrete has become a small but stable part of the overall aggregates picture.

As the decade draws to a close, can recyclers of concrete expect to see demand for their product continue? The experience of the last several years may indicate that demand for crushed concrete has fallen into line with that for other aggregates—as long as overall construction and road building markets are good, so will be the market for crushed concrete.

Hauling heavy materials costs money, even when oil prices are low. Equipment, labor and fuel costs all add up when a contractor takes on a major project that involves hauling tons of obsolete concrete away from a work site to a landfill. Add in the cost of a tip fee, and it becomes clear why onsite concrete recycling has become increasingly commonplace for major construction projects.

The American Concrete Pavement Association, Arlington Heights, Ill., sums it up this way. "Recycling offers savings in the cost of transporting new aggregates and in the cost of hauling and disposing of the old concrete." The organization notes that "it is not uncommon for contractors to haul virgin material over 50 to 70 miles for certain projects." And, "in some cases contractors must ship material from sites over distances greater than 200 miles."

Crushing concrete on site, of course, entails its own set of costs, primarily additional equipment and manpower to operate that equipment. But most makers of concrete crushing equipment argue that it is not difficult to recapture those dollars when considering the alternative: hauling material to and from the site, paying for disposal costs of the old concrete, and paying for new aggregates for road base.

Unfortunately, what seems like a no-brainer can become a little more complicated by regulatory considerations, especially in the road building segment.

"I thought on-site crushing for highway projects was making inroads at one time, but the different states have so many specifications on material," notes Larry Horwedel of Excel Machinery Ltd., Amarillo, Texas. "It can make it hard to rely on in-place recycling if they change the specs too often," he adds.

Bill Turley, executive director of the Construction Materials Recycling Association, Naperville, Ill., agrees that undertaking an in-place concrete recycling project takes considerable foresight. "There are really only a few companies doing it," he remarks. "There is a high learning curve involved and it can be difficult to get the machinery on line. It takes some brains to do it."

According to Horwedel, in-place recycling at highway sites got its start in states such as Iowa and Kansas, and has met with varying degrees of success, depending on local aggregates markets and state regulations on road base materials. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has 25 districts and, according to Horwedel, each one has different inclinations toward using crushed concrete as road base. "Just because they used recycled concrete in south Texas doesn’t mean they’re going to do it up here in Amarillo," he remarks.

If state regulations call for adding too many additives (such as cement-lime), that can negate the economic gains of crushing on site, or even make it logistically impossible.

But at the same time that the regulatory puzzle can be a barrier to on-site crushing at highway construction sites, government agencies can also offer incentives for recycling.

"A lot of highway contractors are getting involved in recycling because the states want 25% of the material to be recycled material," notes Horwedel. "The contractor pretty much has to buy a machine or hire a subcontractor—and they can be hard to find," he adds.

The savings can be significant when all the right circumstances are in place for an on-site concrete recycling task. "I know one contractor saved $200,000 by crushing on site for one major project," says Horwedel.

Several major projects in the summer of 1999 will see some on-site crushing taking place, including the razing of the Cinderella City shopping complex in Denver, the taking up of runways at the former Stapleton Airport in Denver, and a large interstate highway project in Kansas.

While in-place concrete recycling has helped drive the market in some cases, even projects generating smaller amounts of concrete may find economic benefits in getting the material crushed rather than buried—or in procuring crushed material from an offsite source instead of virgin aggregates.

In many major metropolitan markets, both C&D landfills and quarries are moving further away from the population centers. Thus large-volume concrete crushing plants and portable units are producing increased amounts of recycled crushed concrete.

On-site recycling—when it can be made to work—goes the longest way to eliminating hauling costs. But strategically located plants can go a long way toward lowering the costs by accepting torn up concrete and asphalt for a modest tipping fee, and by supplying road base material from a closer source than an outlying quarry.

For these reasons, many traditional quarrying and aggregates companies have moved into the concrete crushing segment, such as the Rogers Group of Anchorage, Ky. Rogers Recycling Co. LLC is a subsidiary that processes both aggregate and recycled concrete and asphalt.

The Rogers Recycling subsidiary operates an Eagle Crusher portable plant that they operate both at the Rogers quarry and at C&D job sites. "It’s been running non-stop," says Rogers Recycling Co. manager Joe Winiger. "We have to serve our market, whether it’s asphalt and concrete recycling or staying in tune with the aggregate production required by Rogers Group."

One recent project where the company’s Eagle UltraMax machine was taken on site was a demolition job that was coupled with a new construction project. "We crushed the remains of an elementary school building that is making way for a large building supply and home improvement chain store," says Winiger. "We set up right where the parking lot is going. The contractor was able to take the concrete as we crushed it and use it for a temporary roadway for rolling stock equipment."

The company operates two collection sites to accept concrete debris, one at the Rogers Group quarry and the other at a yard in Louisville where both concrete and asphalt are accepted by the truckload for a tipping fee. The products most commonly produced by Rogers Recycling are 2"-minus and #57 road base.

Winiger believes the concrete crushing operations will increase in volume in the coming years. "In Kentucky, a lot of concrete is going into permit by rule," he says. "The legislature allows each landfill to cover up to one acre with C&D debris. While this is a competitive situation to us now, it won’t be for long. These ‘honey holes,’ as we call them, will soon fill up," he remarks.

"We think we’re on the front end of the curve and we’re educating as many people as possible to the benefits of recycling," states Winiger.

One obstacle facing the concrete crushing industry that has proved challenging is the level of complaints about noise and dust.

The siting of a permanent facility for concrete crushing has become increasingly difficult. Operators must be similarly careful with in-place and portable operations both in regard to noise and especially with dust for highway projects.

"Regulatory agencies at all levels (federal, state, local) are now heavily involved in the permitting of this activity," Douglas E. Ruhlin, a consultant based in Forked River, N.J., told attendees at a seminar at CONEXO/CON-AGG ’99.

"Environmental regulations also can potentially limit the scope of the proposed facility as well as cause delays in the appropriate approval process," noted Ruhlin.

Operators may need to guarantee that they will undertake dust control measures and/or construct noise control barriers. "Some proposed facility locations may necessitate the need for some type of capital expenditure such as constructing earthen berms or other man-made noise buffers to comply with the applicable noise codes," Ruhlin remarked.

John Armando works with Raisch Products, San Jose, Calif., a maker of surfacing materials from both aggregates and recycled products. He notes that "quarry sites are becoming more and more difficult to site," and says the same is true of concrete recycling plants.

In addition to the familiar "not in my back yard (NIMBY)" reply from neighboring residents and even businesses, Armando is finding that gaining zoning approvals can run into a new euphemism from elected officials: NIMET—not in my election term.

Despite the processing challenges, the fortunes of concrete recyclers are tied closely to the overall construction industry.

"The market is growing fast, and I get the sense that its health regionally is often tied to the amount of construction taking place," says Thomas Kelly of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Denver office, who authored a circular on the state of the concrete recycling industry.

Overall construction forecasts for the 1999 spring and summer seasons initially indicated a flat or stable outlook. Considering that the 1990s have, for the most part, been very good years for the construction industry, a stable amount of construction activity will be enough to keep most contractors busy.

The construction industry has been so strong that both the U.S. Commerce Department and the McGraw-Hill Companies revised their construction industry forecasts for 1999 upward. The revised Commerce Department estimate of $680 billion on construction spending for 1999 would mean a 4% increase (in real dollars) over 1998 spending levels.

Speaking at a McGraw-Hill symposium, Patrick MacAuley of the Commerce Department noted that the construction segment being projected to post the strongest increase is the public works sector, fueled in large part by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). The Congressional Office of Management and Budget predicts a 16% gain in federal highway spending in 1999 versus 1998.

Horwedel of Excel Machinery says of his operations in Texas, "it’s a decent market to sell into. We crush a lot up as base material or fill material for up to $8.50 per ton to private users." Of the overall market, he says, "it’s a good market, and states are wanting people to recycle the material."

Armando of Raisch Products says, "I think it’s going to be a good year" for road building contractors. He notes that a rainy spring in California was creating "a hurry up and wait situation" in that part of the country.

For those concrete recyclers who have their permits in place and their equipment up and running, the 1999 construction season should present opportunities to process a significant tonnage of material. C&D