Management and sustainable utilization of processing wastes from ready-mixed concrete plants in construction: A review

Dongxing Xuan, Chi Sun Poon, Wei Zheng

Research output: Journal article publicationReview articleAcademic researchpeer-review

115 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Increasing attention is now paid to sustainable waste management from construction due to the increasing disposal cost as well as the growing public appreciation on environmental impacts. Since 1990′s, recycling and reuse of hardened concrete from construction and demolition waste has received considerable attention, while the principles, methods of treatment and associated technologies developed are generally not applicable to unhardened or early hardened concrete wastes generated during concrete production processes. This review focuses on the source, classification and management of the processing wastes from ready-mixed concrete (RMC) plants and their potential reutilization. In recent years, washing-out systems have been adopted at many concrete batching plants. Depending on reclaiming systems such as aggregate and water reclaimers, the wastes generated are classified as reclaimed aggregates, concrete slurry waste, wastewater and reclaimed water. Although the potential to reuse these wastes has attracted lots of interest, the respective principles and methods of treatments have only been reported in discretely, and sometimes inconclusive manners. The management challenges such as low re-usage rate, poor product performance, increasing cost and strict local regulations obviously limit their sustainable utilization. In order to minimize the dispose of the processing wastes from the RMC plants, the installation of both mechanical aggregate and water reclaiming systems are found to be necessary. All kinds of processing wastes can then be reused in producing different low carbon footprint products in order to improve the sustainable development of the RMC industry.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)238-247
Number of pages10
JournalResources, Conservation and Recycling
Volume136
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2018

Keywords

  • Concrete slurry waste
  • Processing wastes
  • Ready-mixed concrete
  • Returned concrete
  • Sustainable management
  • Wastewater

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Economics and Econometrics

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