A Guide to Recycled Concrete for the 2012 Olympic Village

Introduction

Mention the word demolition to almost anyone and the picture that instantly comes to mind is a vision of a building being blown up and collapsing to the ground. Many people have stated that they would love to push the button, to detonate the explosive devices which bring a disused building to the ground. In many cases what comes down, must go up and we are seeing many empty buildings being demolished to make way for future development, often as part of a regeneration project.

For companies who over many years have built their business around the demolition of buildings, the demolition sector is now far more reaching than just demolishing old buildings. Once the building is demolished the huge task of site clearance begins and in a world where consideration of the environmental impacts are high on most peoples agenda, the material residues from demolition need to be sorted for recycling purposes. This will include such materials as steel, wood, plastic, brickwork and concrete.

Most of the materials can be bulked up and shipped to the appropriate recycling plants for reprocessing. Materials such as bricks and concrete can be crushed and turned into a recycled concrete aggregate product ready for reuse in the construction of new roads or buildings. Increasingly though, through advances in technological development, residues such as concrete to be recycled have to meet a very high specification for reuse in construction projects.

Crushed into different grades of recycled aggregate will determine the future usage potential of the product. Large sizes could be used as decorative rockery products in landscaping whilst much finer, almost shingle like product can be used as a bedding for pipe laying or as a layer in road construction. With an increasing number of opportunities identified for the reuse of recycled aggregate, the entire demolition and construction industry is making a significant contribution to sustainable development. Following demolition of a site, many demolition contractors have expanded their service offering to include site clearance services.

Reasons Behind the Increased Focus on Recycling from Construction and Demolition Projects

In 1996, UK Government imposed a tax on all wastes going to landfill. The tax is paid on top of normal gate fees for waste being disposed in landfill and since its introduction the cost has increased on an annual basis. When first introduced, the standard rate of tax for general wastes going to landfill was