RECOVERY OF MINERAL WASTE THROUGH THE MANUFACTURE OF CONSTRUCTION

MATERIALS AND LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE

Eng. Dimulescu Sabin Cristinel, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania,
Eng. Wetternek Mihaela, Colegiul Tehnic Resita, Romania

ABSTRACT: The waste resulting from demolitions and various construction activities represents a real
problem for all countries regardless of their economic development stage. At the level of European countries,
construction waste represents the largest share, in terms of mass and volume, representing about 35% of all waste
generated at EU level. At the global level, it can be observed that in recent years, certain rules have been imposed
for the recycling of waste resulting from demolitions, rules that are directed towards a fair economy, a circular
economy.
Keywords : recycling, sorting , crushing, construction waste, circular economy, environment.

INTRODUCTION immediate vicinity of the areas with generating

Regarding the recycling of construction
waste, in the European Union we have legislation
deriving from the application of Directive
2008/98/EC. By applying the directive, the following
is taken into account: the sustainable use of natural
resources and the practical application of the waste
hierarchy; the establishment of measures aimed at
decoupling the link between economic growth and
waste generation; the introduction of a system of
sanctions based on the principle of proportionality of
the violation of the directive and the stimulation of
stream sorting from the generating sources.
In the big cities in Romania, we have an
important but also chaotic urban development, with
residential constructions, building renovations,
industrial platform demolitions, thus resulting in
significant amounts of construction and demolition
waste. Inadequate management of construction and
demolition waste leads to major environmental
problems. Most of the waste consists of rubble, brick
remnants, ceramic materials, autoclaved cellular
concrete, gypsum. Currently, a complex analysis is
required from the point of view of the life cycle for
the infrastructure works, integrating the new
recycling technologies. Thus, from the point of view
of sustainable development, the entire recycling
process must be redesigned, starting with the
selection of raw materials and construction
technologies, making a complete evaluation of the
waste resulting from the maintenance works, but also
of the materials resulting at the end of the service
period , when the demolition or reconstruction of the
object is required. The impact of such a long-term
approach to infrastructure works brings benefits for
economic-social development and leads to the
reduction of pollution and the saving of natural
resources. Taking into account the large volume of
waste, but also the costs related to transport, in order
to obtain an economic efficiency of recovery, it is
necessary to carry out recycling flows at the
generator, or in authorized warehouses in the
sources [1].
In the presented context, we consider that
studies regarding the application of some processing
methods are opportune, in order to obtain some high-
performance materials, which have as their
component aggregates resulting from the crushing of
sorted construction waste.
In the present work, we will present some
results and conclusions of a study regarding the
application of specific mineral processing methods to
obtain quality recycled aggregates, which can be
successfully used in the manufacture of monolithic or
prefabricated construction elements. In this sense,
there are legal norms that regulate the activities
within civil constructions, both in terms of the raw
materials used, as well as the basic physical
characteristics of the obtained concrete. The
regulation that regulates the manufacture and use of
lightweight concrete for construction is C 155/2012.
1. THE STUDY MATERIAL
The material used for the study was taken
from a private construction waste recycling
warehouse in Targu-Jiu municipality. The material
for the study was crushed in the warehouse, with the
help of a semi-mobile crusher with jaws. (Fig. 1)
The study material was obtained by sieving
with the help of a vibrating sieve, obtaining the 4-
37.5 mm grade.
 Fig.1- Crusher with vibrating screen

The quantitative evaluation of the sorts

prepared at the beginning of the laboratory studies is
presented in Table 1.

Table 1- Distribution by granular classes of

recycled aggregates from demolition waste

The percentage distribution by Fig.3-Brick waste

components is presented in Fig. 2., considering:
natural aggregates from crushed concrete, brick and
tile remnants. Impurities such as fragments of glass,
metals, wood
which represented less than 1% of the
sample mass were neglected in the subsequent
studies, being eliminated manually.

Fig.4-Concrete waste

Fig.2 – Distribution by component of

recycled aggregates (RA)

The wastes used for the study before

crushing are presented in figures 3,4,5

Fig.5- Ceramic tiles waste

2. LABORATORY METHODS
 In order to evaluate the yield and separation
efficiency, an experiment plan was designed to
highlight - the improvement of the quality of the
aggregates obtained by sorting. So the methods
aimed at the comparative and complete
characterization of the composition and components
of the recycled aggregates. Special attention was paid
to the evaluation of the densities and water
absorption of the recycled aggregates, because these
characteristics are determining factors in establishing
a cement-based concrete recipe with required
performance.
according to the ASTM-C136- AASHTO T27
standard) and of the settlement ( determined
according to the ASTM C143- AASHTO T 119
standard). The evaluation of the hardened concrete
characteristics was done on cylindrical concrete
samples. The compressive strength was made
considering the ASTM C 39 (AASH T 22) standard.
The test methods are similar to the provisions of the
European standards from the EN 12390, respectively
EN 13791 series.
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

2.1 DETERMINATION OF Granulosity determinations were made for

GRANULOSITY all categories of sorts. These are presented by the
The determination of the granularity granulometric curves shown in Fig. 6,7,8.
of the recycled aggregates was done by mechanical
sieving, similarly to the provisions of the EN 933-1
or ASTM C136/AASHTO T 27 standards. The sieves
used in the laboratory were square mesh sieves with
an opening of: 37.5mm, 19.1mm, 15.9mm, 12.7mm,
9.5mm, 8.0mm, 6.35mm, 4.76mm, 2mm, and 1.0mm.

2.2 MANUAL SORTING

For increased accuracy in the
characterization of waste and recycled aggregates,
manual sorting was also performed to identify the
components of the tested material. It was found that
material samples of about 2-3 kg, obtained by passing
through the divider or by the method of quarters, can
be representative.
Fig. 6 – The granularity of the crushed
cement
2.3 DETERMINATION OF DENSITY
AND WATER ABSORPTION
In order to correctly evaluate the
possibility of using aggregates obtained by crushing
waste, it is important to evaluate the density and
water absorption of the obtained aggregates. The
evaluation of densities and absorption was done by
the hydrostatic method. Although the European
standard limits the application of the method
depending on the nominal size of the aggregate sort,
Annex H of the EN 1097-6 standard was still applied,
but paying special attention to the mode of operation.
In the continuation of the article, we consider the
expression and notations according to the European
norm, characterizing the recycled aggregates by the
apparent density of the granules and water
absorption, according to SR EN 1097-6.
Fig. 7 – The granularity of the brick remains
2.4 TESTS ON CONCRETE
For the evaluation of the production
of concrete with aggregates obtained by crushing
waste, the maintenance of characteristics similar to a
concrete considered as a reference was taken into
account. Therefore, the maintenance of the
characteristics of granularity (determination

Fig 8 – Granulosity of the remains of tiles
Starting from the granulometric curves for
each component of the mixture of recycled
aggregates shown in fig. 6,7 and 8, it is possible to
estimate the content of each component on various
granular classes, when fractionated on intermediate
grades.[2].
In the present case, it was evaluated both
theoretically by interpolating the granulometric
curves, and experimentally by manual sorting. The
estimated distributions by components are presented
in Fig. 9.
Fig.9- Distribution by components (natural
aggregates, cement-based mortar, brick and tile
remnants)
The average values for granularity are given in Table
2.
Table 2- Reference granularity of manufactured
concrete.
The average values for the characterization of
cement-based concretes are given in Table 3.
Table 3-Average values for the characterization of
the obtained concretes
Taking into account that from the beginning of the
study, the manufacture of cement-based products
with aggregates obtained by crushing construction
waste was considered, evaluations were made using
standardized methods, obtaining the physical-
mechanical characteristics of the recycled aggregates,
especially the absorption of water and their densities.
[3]
When designing concretes with a higher strength
class, it is necessary to maintain a designed
granularity. If the addition of recycled aggregates is
considered, it is necessary to correct the granularity
by separating the recycled aggregates into sorts
similar to the sorts of natural aggregates used to
establish the recipe. The addition of recycled
aggregates in the composition influences the water
absorption through higher values. Also, the addition
of recycled aggregates leads to different values of the
density of the hardened concrete, compared to the
concrete obtained without recycled aggregates, in the
case of applying the same recipe. In the specialized
literature, there are characteristics of the aggregates
from the waste resulting from demolitions. Mainly,
the values for water absorption, densities, porosity
are of interest, in order to estimate the possibility of
using them in the manufacture of concrete.
It can be decided on the appropriateness of using a
certain type of recycled aggregates from a certain
source, starting from experimental data or other
references from previous studies for the
characteristics of the material.[4].
We mention that the high accuracy of the water
absorption estimate leads to correct estimates for the
water/cement ratio or for the porosity of the cement
concrete obtained with recycled aggregates.
Following the study, I poured two batches of
products, shown in Figures 10 and 11, into plastic
molds.

Fig.10 - Batch I - concrete pavers
Fig.11 - Batch II - concrete gutters
The specialized bibliography is also useful for
evaluations of the heterogeneity of recycled
aggregates obtained from demolition waste.
In the present case, values were obtained that fall
within the standards of the specialized literature.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The present work studied the replacement of
natural aggregates from concrete networks with
aggregates obtained by crushing construction waste,
without negatively affecting the physical-mechanical
characteristics. At the European level, by applying
the EN 206-1- "Concrete Part 1: Specification,
performance, production and compliance" standard,
recycled aggregates can be used up to a maximum of
20% in the concrete composition. The presented
study shows that by sorting the waste from
demolitions by category, the quality of the sorting
can be improved, which leads to an increase in the
percentage of recycled aggregates in the composition
of the concrete. Although for cement concrete
manufactured by replacing natural aggregates with
recycled aggregates it went up to a value of 50%
without reducing the compressive strength obtained
on the made-up samples. Through this study it is
shown that when evaluating the use of recycled
aggregates from demolitions, it is particularly
important to take into account the change in the
composition of the constituent components when
dividing the recycled aggregates into grades, if
intermediate grades from a mixture of recycled
aggregates are used.
Both at the European level and in our
country (code of practice NE 012-1: 2007), the EN
12620-Aggregates for concrete standard is applied
for aggregate grades, which considers grades 0-4mm,
4-8mm, 8 -16mm and 16-22.4mm. It is therefore
recommended that when using recycled aggregates,
they should be divided into grades similar to natural
aggregates, so that timely corrections can be made for
the addition of intermediate grades of recycled
aggregates.
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