Recycling is central to concrete, cement and aggregate sustainability efforts
This column is the start of a new media partnership between SEMCO Publishing’s Concrete Products, Rock Products and Cement Optimized publications, and our organization—the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association (CDRA)—that will highlight the important role recycling aggregate materials plays in the sustainability efforts of the concrete, natural aggregate, and cement industries.
CDRA is a 501c6 organization based in Chicago. For more than 30 years, it has promoted the recycling of construction materials, including concrete and asphalt. Indeed, the association was originally formed to serve aggregate recyclers. More than half its recycler members process aggregate on some scale, including many major natural aggregate producers.
PARTNERSHIP PLANS
As many know, Rock Products has covered the natural aggregate industry for more than 120 years. Concrete Products has covered the concrete industry for more than 80 years. Cement Optimized, under its previous incarnations Cement Americas and Cement Products, has covered the cement industry for 40 years.
The partnership means that CDRA will provide SEMCO publications regular updates, including articles and columns, on what is going on in recycling and recovery for concrete, asphalt and other construction materials and how it supports the sustainability premise. Much of the information will come from the CDRA’s newly formed Aggregates Recycling Committee, but also from other work the organization is doing in construction material recycling.
By weight, concrete is the most recycled material in North America and perhaps the world, and asphalt is close behind. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which worked initially with the CDRA to measure this, more than 300 million tons of waste aggregate material are generated annually, while other research has estimated that at least 85 percent of that material is recycled into end products that replace virgin products. In today’s climate of promoting concepts such as extended producer responsibility, such metrics are a great example of how environmentally friendly aggregate-related industries embrace sustainability.
Another aspect of the appropriateness of this partnership is recycled construction materials’ role in cement production. Cement companies, several of which are CDRA members, are always looking for ways to reduce the environmental impact of their product. Recycled construction materials such as asphalt shingles and drywall are used in many steps of the cement making process, from fuel in the kiln to using recycled gypsum into the finished product.
HISTORY
Modern aggregate recycling began in Germany at the end of World War II as a way to handle the mountains of rubble resulting from Allied bombing. It made no sense to haul the material away and bring in new rock, so material was processed and used locally as a base product.
That same logic applies today as concrete and asphalt recycling centers are usually located closer to cities than quarries and landfills. However, today’s recycled aggregate products can be far more sophisticated than a simple base or 57 stone and are often produced by equipment modified to process concrete and asphalt rather than natural aggregate.
These end products and equipment are the focus of the CDRA’s Aggregates Recycling Committee as the association looks to expand its support of recycled aggregates. The media partnership will allow CDRA to share its work with the readers of SEMCO publications in the wider concrete and aggregate industries, as many of those readers are keenly interested in how recycling helps the industries’ sustainability credibility, as well as how to better operate their recycling businesses.
Fortunately, an added benefit to the recycling of construction materials is the economic benefit. CDRA has research showing the environmental benefits of recycling construction materials, but one reason recycling has been going for so long, especially for concrete, is its economic viability.
Indeed, when aggregate recycling started to ramp up in North America in the 1980s, few major aggregate companies were supportive. Today all major aggregate producers are involved in recycling at some level, though most concrete recycling plants are still controlled by privately held companies.
WIN-WIN PROSPECTS
“Recycling aggregates is the bedrock of the construction material recycling industry, and we are delighted to be able to work with SEMCO Publishing to share progress on environmentally friendly disposal options for concrete and asphalt, and the role other recycled construction materials play in concrete and cement production,” says CDRA President and Waste & Recycling Solutions Managing Partner John Thomas.
“This partnership makes perfect sense,” adds SEMCO President Peter Johnson. “Our publications, all of which have been around for many decades, have always worked to show what is happening in our industry, and sustainability is an important issue. Working with CDRA, which promotes the recovery and reuse of aggregates and supports the use of recycled construction products into cement and concrete, will help our readers along paths to reaching their sustainability goals.”
Terri Ward is executive director/CEO of the Construction & Demolition Recycling Association. She can be reached at [email protected] for questions about CDRA membership or participation in its Aggregates Recycling Committee.