Sustainable: The business of recycling concrete crunches on

Of all the materials processed by recyclers for reuse in new products, one of the most expensive is concrete. . . . But with more regulations restricting what can go in landfills, and disposal costs continuing to rise, it still makes economic sense to find ways to reuse concrete.

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Tubohotel: Concrete Tubing Recycled into Affordable, "All Tube" Hotel

Here on TreeHugger we've already seen minimalist hotels made out of giant sections of concrete tubing. But who would have known concrete tubing could be actually made to look inviting, much less for travellers looking to stay in one of Mexico's more popular destinations? Located less than an hour away from Mexico City, Tepoztlan's Tubohotelis an affordable hotel that uses recycled concrete tubing for its rooms, a strategy employed by designers T3arc to build a hotel quickly and cheaply, without sacrificing the area's spectacular views.


Read more at TreeHugger.


Photo courtesy of TreeHugger.

Concrete Recycling May Cut Highway Construction Cost, Landfill Use

Purdue University civil engineers are working with the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to perfect the use of recycled concrete for highway construction, a strategy that could reduce material costs by as much as 20 percent. . . .

"Some parts of Indiana have plenty of quarries near highway construction sites," said Nancy Whiting, a scientiest with the Applied Concrete Research Initiative at Purdue's School of Civil Engineering. "In other places, it's more difficult to find quality aggregate. If you have to drive 50 or 100 miles to get a good quality aggregate, it's going to be much more cost effective to use recycled materials by crushing the concrete you have in place."

Read more on the Environmental Protection website (not the EPA).