Recycled aggregates for concrete production: State-of-the-art

Abstract

In the last decades, problems linked to industrial material landfill disposal has become more and more relevant to society, with cost increases for environment and municipalities. Waste reutilization is attractive to reduce economical costs and potential pollution problems, and preserve natural raw resources. In this context, the promotion of recycling in concrete industry may represent a valid route for sustainable development, preventing natural resources consumption, valorizing recycled materials, and avoiding the landfill of huge amount of materials. Nowadays, there are, among others, two significant possibilities to reduce natural aggregates exploitation: the use of recycled concrete from construction and demolition waste (C&DWs) and the use of slag from metallurgical industrial production. Additionally the use of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) can reduce the great environmental emissions due to cement use. In this chapter, a review about the most commonly used recycled aggregates is given, i.e. recycled aggregates from C&DW and from metallurgical slag, with a special focus about the available codes and normative which regulate their use in structural concrete.