Raise Your Demolition Recycling Rates

To accomplish this feat, concrete was crushed on site and stockpiled for construction of the new medical center. The stadium lighting fixtures were salvaged for use in the new stadium, and the telephone poles were reused on the Fort Hood firing range. Materials such as copper and aluminum were recycled and reclaimed. Even the asphalt parking lots were ground and recycled.

“That particular project leant itself to a high amount of recycling because of the construction materials that were used to build it,” says Stan Carter, federal program manager at Charter Environmental.

The company segregates concrete by traditional means with hydraulic impact hammers and pulverizer attachments. “So you are looking at a lot of initial sizing with hydraulic hammers to the point we get into a crushing application,” says Carter. “When we are looking at creating a reusable product, it usually goes through a multi-stage crushing process.”

Charter Environmental owns its own hydraulic hammers and pulverizer attachments. However, due to its wide geographic territory, it rents specialty equipment. “We will rent shears on an as-needed basis or we will rent machines that are fitted with the appropriate attachments,” notes Carter. “We occasionally use high reach excavators, but we don’t own any. We usually lease that out. We work all over the country, so we will engage whoever is local.”

When the company selects its tools, a good match between an attachment and carrier is most important. “We don’t have any allegiance to any particular brands,” says Carter. “It has more to do with how well it matches up with a particular piece of equipment.” Sometimes Brand A attachment might not run as well on a Komatsu as a Caterpillar or vice versa. “We consider how well the ‘shoe’ fits and then calculate the cost/benefit ratio to optimize it.”