Let’s Talk Recycled Construction Products!

REBAR: A rod or bar used for reinforcement in concrete or asphalt pours. This bar is used for many other things as well. They’ve been used for Pavilions, stakes for vining plants, set up like a tee pee and string lights on them and they look like Christmas trees, art work and many other things. Below is a video of how they recycle cars, refrigerators, scrap iron and other metals to make rebar.

MULCH: A mulch is anything that can be used to suppress weeds, conserve water, or give a “polished” look to a garden. There are two types – organic or inorganic.
Most organic mulches, like newspaper, shredded paper, tree bark, or grass clippings, will eventually break down (decompose) into the soil. Another organic option, called a living mulch, is a plant (clover, vetch, rye) planted beneath taller growth. This is often used in vegetable gardens to suppress weeds around tomatoes and peppers. In the fall, the living mulch is turned into the soil to improve it. You’ve also seen after a storm where trees have come down, the city or a company will mulch tree branches to clear streets, power lines, etc. creating mulch. At Christmas time cities often have a place to drop off your real Christmas trees so they can be mulched and used for city gardens around town.
An inorganic mulch is commonly used in more permanent beds, and the kinds usually chosen are heavy-duty plastics, sometimes topped with another inorganic (stone) or organic (bark) mulch. I recently heard about using shredded tires for mulch. Wow! we’ve gotten so creative.

FLY ASH: Fly ash is a fine, glass-like powder recovered from gases created by coal-fired electric power generation. U.S. power plants produce millions of tons of fly ash annually, which is usually dumped in landfills. Fly ash is an inexpensive replacement for Portland cement used in concrete, while it actually improves strength, segregation, and ease of pumping of the concrete. Fly ash is also used as an ingredient in brick, block, paving, and structural fills. Fly ash can be a cost effective partial substitute for Portland cement in markets that are experiencing cement shortages. Because this ingredient is recycled it is not put into our landfills. The image below is of Fly ash particles at 2,000x magnification!

INSULATION:Insulation helps to protect people inside a building from heat, cold, and noise, and conserves energy. Environmentally preferable insulation options offer additional benefits, such as reduced waste and pollution in manufacture and installation, more efficient resource use, recyclable, enhanced R-value, and reduced or eliminated health risks for installers and occupants. Finally, recycled-content fiberglass insulation is becoming increasingly available (ask for minimum 25% post-consumer recycled content and minimum 50% total recycled content). Some products are designed with heavier, intertwined glass fibers to reduce airborne fibers and reduce the fraction of fibers that can enter the lungs. However, cutting to size can limit these benefits.

ROAD BASE: Road Base often comes from crushed concrete. It is used for sub-grade for roads, driveways and parking lots. There are several places that take concrete which had been tore out to be replaced and crush it to look like gravel. It is a cheaper way to get your project started and it saves on our natural resources.

READY MIXED CONCRETE: There are several ways to recycle this concrete. Most all company’s recycle to some degree. They can pour blocks at their facility with leftover concrete that comes back. These blocks are used for reinforcing erosion at lakes or shoring up embankments.Ready Mix company’s can patch area’s on their property, some facilities have a reclaimer that allow them to pour wet concrete in to it and it will wash the rock and sand and pile it up to be placed back in the pile, while the cement is kept in a wet state to be reintroduced in to the next load as slurry. The company’s often wet up returned concrete and pour it into a washout pit and when they clean it out, it can be used as base as well.

There are many more products that are recycled these days. It is estimated that recyled products save 30% or more energy than a virgin made product. Just imagine if every product was recycled, 30% would add up to a lot less pollution and save our planets natural resources. Do your part and research the products you need and see if there is a recycled alternative. If you know of a construction product that is recycled, made of recycled materials etc.,  let me know. I think we will both be surprised at what is out there.