Compared to the 1980s, concrete production has increased 3 times. Every year, the world produces 30 billion tons of concrete. After conversion, this is 3.75 tons of new concrete per person (1.63m3/per capita). One of the main components in the production of concrete is gravel, and it must be extracted every year, roughly 37 billion m3 of gravel material from mountains or rivers.
Reducing the CO2 footprint is great and very important, but despite reducing the CO2 footprint, early research shows that the amount of man-made material such as concrete will surpass the amount of biomass in the near future. The production of man-made materials requires constant extraction of biomass. The good news is that in the US, rebar is already 75% recycled iron and 90% aluminum is recycled aluminum. Less than half of plastics are recycled, but fortunately the proportion of recycled materials is increasing. Concrete and concrete, especially cement, is the creator of up to 2% of CO2 on the planet (90% of concrete's CO2 comes from cement production), so it is necessary to pay attention both to the improvement of cement production and to the elimination of the extraction of new gravel, and last but not least, it is necessary to pay attention to the accumulating with waste from ceramic construction waste such as bricks and concrete. In England, recycled concrete replaces only 5% of new concrete mixes.
The number one reason is undoubtedly the preservation of nature.
About 55 m3 of concrete, if not more, is used for each brick building with a usable area of 100 m2, which represents 126 tons of material for concrete only. To give you a better idea, that's five big trucks full of material. We can replace the material for concrete production with recycled material. What does it mean? That your house can save nature from mining 126 tons of material and at the same time clean nature of 126 tons of waste. During the construction of Talpa House, we have very high demands on concrete, especially waterproofing, workability and static function. Recycled concrete can fulfill all this, which is evidenced by our completed constructions and also verification in a certified laboratory.
Reason number two is to clean up the planet.
If we want to reduce the amount of waste, let's start with the biggest sources in terms of volume and weight, and that includes old buildings that need to be rehabilitated. Up to 2/3 of construction waste is ceramic waste such as bricks and concrete. Plastic straws have changed to metal or paper straws, which is great for the planet (not so much for people 😊 when it starts to dissolve in your drink), but we can significantly increase and support the cleaning of the country when we start cleaning from the biggest wastes. Straws and plastic bags travel all over the world and thanks to the Enlightenment, the elimination of production and thus the elimination of waste has begun, but concrete remains under the weeds behind the village or city, but this does not mean that the construction waste has been eliminated and lost.
Reason number three is the circulation of the economy.
The first tests showed that it is possible to recycle concrete up to three times in a row. Which means I extract it once and use it for 150-200 years, possibly even longer. I call this the circular economy. For example, aluminum, hated in the first production, can be used four times in the secondary processing and only 5% of the energy is spent as in the first processing. The lifespan of aluminum is between 50-150 years. Even though aluminum makes up little waste by weight, yes, it also makes sense to recycle, e.g. also in the form of cans.
Reason number four is desire
for leaving the earth to children in a better shape than we took it from our parents in the industrial age.
Reason number five is financial.
Such a high rate of concrete recycling costs only 0.5% of the construction price, which is the lowest share of the price when using recycled material in construction. For example, wood fiber insulation, also a recycled material, instead of polystyrene, costs up to 1.5% of the construction price.
We will continue to build from ordinary concrete from new materials. Well, we believe that recycling appealed to you so much that you think about how much waste you can clean from the country and what positive impact it has on society. When the need to build a new house/apartment for living, education or work has already arisen, let's focus on the possibilities of where and how to recycle. Tapla House uses recycled concrete for a longer period of time and specifically focuses on reducing the CO2 footprint also through recycling. Will you join?
Read on to find out where and what types of recycled concrete can be used. Coming soon.
Examples of use:
- Two TalpaHouse, or after the new Talpa House, built in 2022-2023
- New school in Plavecký Štvrtok (Slovakia) and kindergarten in Leváre (Slovakia) - in the 2022-2023 permitting process
- Administrative building near Zlín (Czech republic) - in the permitting process 2022-2023
- Development project with dozens of houses in preparation - study 2022-2023