Haiti damaged concrete could be recycled

Earthquake in Haiti. Image from blogwatch.missionary-blogs.com

Haiti could safely and economically recycle damaged concrete and rubble from the 2010 earthquake into strong new construction material, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at Georgia Tech say new concrete can be made from recycled rubble and other indigenous raw materials that meets or exceeds minimum strength standard used in the United States, an article in the Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society reported.

With most of the damaged areas of Haiti still in ruins a year after the 7.0 temblor, researchers say the method could provide a successful and sustainable strategy for managing an unprecedented amount of waste, estimated to be 20 million cubic yards.

"The commodious piles of concrete rubble and construction debris form huge impediments to reconstruction and are often contaminated," Reginald DesRoches, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech says. "There are political and economic dilemmas as well, but we have found we can turn one of the dilemmas -- the rubble -- into a solution via some fairly simple methods of recycling the rubble and debris into new concrete."

Excerpt from Engineering News Record.com

http://enr.construction.com/yb/enr/article.aspx?story_id=154198749