Allu and Mapei announce cooperation in concrete recycling

According to Mining News Pro - Aside from the positive environmental effects, through the requirement of less new material the system will generate substantial savings in production. Savings of up to tens of euros per cubic metre of concrete produced are achievable through savings in landfill costs and reduced costs for virgin aggregate.

The system is simple and requires minimal investments, using Mapei’s Re-Con Zero chemical and an Allu transformer. With Re-Con Zero, the wet returned concrete is transformed into a dry granulate. The Allu Transformer then processes the hardened lumps and screens them into the specified aggregate size, to be recycled with fresh concrete. A concrete manufacturer may then use between 5% and 30% of the recycled aggregate with new concrete. This will bring significant savings to the cost of buying virgin aggregate. The system also reduces the amount of washed out sludge from concrete trucks. Waste sludge is an environmental challenge, as it must go to a landfill and is therefore an additional cost for concrete producers.

The Allu Mapei Circulus system assists the concrete industry towards sustainability in concrete manufacturing. The global consumption of concrete is 23 billion tpy, and it is estimated that approximately 2% of all concrete produced in the world is returned to the producer. The majority of this ends up in landfill. An estimated 5% of all man-made CO2 emissions stem from cement and concrete production. 2% of produced and returned concrete adds up to 460 million t being unnecessarily put in landfills, resulting in a total of 53 million t of CO2 being emitted. With the Allu Mapei Circulus, there is an opportunity to save up to 96% of CO2 emissions.