Management and characterization of concrete wastes from concrete batching plants in Belo Horizonte – Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to evaluate the forms of concrete waste generation in concrete batching plants (CBP) in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and focusing on the reuse of this waste in the productive sector of the CBP. Visits were made to nine dosing centers to collect information related to the production process and waste management. The concrete batching plants in Belo Horizonte use different ways to manage and waste disposal, most of which are inefficient and generate high financial expense and do not added value to waste. This study focusing on the elaboration of proposals to allow the waste reuse in the company itself (reducing costs with the acquisition of new materials), indicating potential reuse of the various types of waste generated. Thereunto, materials were collected in the settling tanks to characterize the wastes, considering the physical (granulometry, specific mass, porosity, SEM) and chemical–mineralogical properties (X-ray fluorescence - XRF, X-ray diffraction - XRD, specific surface area, thermogravimetry - TGA, scanning electron microscopy - SEM and energy dispersive spectroscopy - EDS). This present study demonstrated which management procedures and techniques can be incorporated into concrete batching to reduce waste generation and increase reuse of the generated wastes.

Keywords

• Construction waste management
• Waste from concrete batching plants
• Waste reuse
• Waste characterization