Source: Universidad de CórdobaA long-term study conducted by researchers at the Universidad de Córdoba, Spain, revealed that construction waste from single-family homes demolished to make way for a nearby airport expansion were appropriate to use in the construction of roadways.

In 2009, researchers took debris from the demolition of 105 single-family homes in Cordoba, Spain, recycled it and transformed it into material to construct sections of Spain’s CH-2 highway.

To determine the appropriateness of the recycled material for roadway construction, researchers built sections of roadway composed of two types of recycled material. One section of the road was built with mixed recycled aggregates derived from the homes’ structures and walls while another segment of the roadway was composed of recycled aggregates derived from concrete from the homes’ foundations.

For 10 years, the roadway has been operational, circling the Córdoba Airport and linking Cordoba and the town of Almodóvar. Used by roughly 9,000 vehicles each day, the road has demonstrated that recycled construction waste is durable and appropriate for roadway construction.

Such a solution could potentially reduce the amount of waste amassed by the construction industry, which is typically landfilled. To prevent such waste, researchers from all over the world are attempting to find new uses for discarded things. For instance, a team from the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan has developed a new technique for producing environmentally friendly stone composites by combining polymers and natural stone slurry waste, which is also a byproduct of the construction industry. Meanwhile, several companies are repurposing tire scrap, or tire derived aggregate (TDA), to build roads, septic systems and landfills.

The study results appear in the Journal of Cleaner Production.