Importance of Recycling Concrete

Broken concrete, especially the amount that would come from a large business’ parking lot, needs to go somewhere after it has been removed. You will be charged a fairly high fee for the old concrete to be hauled away, especially since it will take several trips with very large trucks to remove all of it. By recycling your broken concrete, you will save yourself the money on the haul-away fee, and possibly add to the value of your property.

Uses for Broken Concrete

A few of the more common uses for broken concrete include:

• Making walkways
• Building retaining walls
• Decoration
• Controlling erosion

Walkways are a great use for old concrete, since they do not need to stand up to extremely heavy loads like a driveway or parking lot. Building a walkway around a commercial building, apartment complex, or home is relatively simple, and you do not have to pay for new concrete to be poured, or wait for it to set.

Constructing a retaining wall out of broken concrete is a great way to save money on the materials needed to build the wall, and it can give it a rustic look that is not easily achievable with fresh concrete. Depending on the size of the retaining wall, it may end up using all of your available concrete, and then some, meaning you do not have to worry about having the rest of it hauled away.

Broken concrete can be used to make inlaid decorations outside in a patio area, in your landscaping, or other space that could use a new look. The decorative piece can be in nearly any sort of pattern that you want, and all that limits the size is how much space you have available.

Erosion control has been a big use for broken concrete for many years, though technology does make it a little easier to build shore walls, it can be prohibitively expensive to have a company build an erosion control wall for just a small lake or pond. By using broken concrete, you can prevent a pond from becoming filled with sediment by just dropping the pieces around most of the shoreline. The effect of wave action is greatly diminished, keeping the depth and area of the pond intact.

How Dykes Paving is Committed to Recycling

Dykes Paving constantly tries to show its customers in and around Atlanta, Georgia that reducing waste is not only good for the environment, but good for your checkbook. We recycle asphalt, concrete, and even roofing shingles, in order to keep costs low, help you get LEED credits, and keep our landfill footprint as small as possible. Recycling helps both us, and the consumer, save both time, and money.

There is really no drawback to reusing your broken concrete when you have the opportunity. It allows you to save money by dropping the haul away expense of new construction, it shows your customers you care about recycling, and you can improve your property at a fraction of the price of building new.

Concrete is made using aggregate (like crushed rock and sand), along with cement and water. The cement acts as the binder in concrete, holding the aggregate together. As the mixture dries, it forms a stiff, unforgiving solid that is prone to cracking and breaking, especially if the surface beneath it is not perfectly smooth.

Like concrete, asphalt is made using aggregate. Its binder, however, is bitumen, a dark, sticky substance derived from crude oil. When roads, parking lots or driveways are built using asphalt construction, hot asphalt (bitumen mixed with fine aggregate) is poured onto a bed of heavier aggregate and then pressed into it with a steamroller. Once the asphalt cools to the surrounding air temperature, it is strong enough to withstand automobile traffic. While asphalt is extremely hard and durable, it offers enough flexibility to accommodate imperfections in underlying surfaces, a feature that concrete sorely lacks.

The other advantages of asphalt paving over concrete or cement paving are plentiful. One of those advantages is that removal and replacement of damaged asphalt is a simple and relatively easy process compared to concrete. Asphalt is also a 100% recyclable product. Due to the heavy demand of asphalt for recycling purposes, you will rarely find this material taking up valuable and limited landfill space. Asphalt construction projects can be finished and opened for traffic much faster and with a lot less expense than concrete construction projects. Maintenance and repair of asphalt pavement is faster and less costly than that of cement pavement, as well.

Repairing minor cracks in asphalt driveways and walkways can be so easy that homeowners can tackle this maintenance project themselves. Asphalt crack repair can be done by a single person in one afternoon, and this simple, inexpensive task can increase the longevity of an asphalt surface significantly.

When more than just simple asphalt crack repair is needed, however, the solution still requires less time and money if one chooses asphalt paving over cement paving. Unlike concrete, which needs to be removed and replaced when significant cracks appear, asphalt can be resurfaced in much less time, and at a fraction of the cost.

Asphalt resurfacing simply involves applying new asphalt over the old. Damaged areas are filled with fresh asphalt, and a steamroller goes over the entire surface to yield smooth, even pavement.

Complete asphalt resurfacing is fast and extremely cost effective. Even better, asphalt resurfacing, while returning the asphalt to its original smoothness, also adds structural integrity so that it can continue to provide a durable, pleasant driving surface under higher traffic volumes and increased vehicle weights.

From new construction to all types of repairs, asphalt paving beats concrete or cement paving every time. Count on asphalt for attractive, long-lasting performance and a substantial savings of both time and money.

Dykes Paving is a leading supplier of paving supplies and services throughout metro Atlanta and southern Georgia. No job is too big for Dykes. Call them at (770) 448-3392. In Macon and surrounding areas, call (478) 745-8171. You also can email Dykes by clicking here.