With the acceleration of urban renewal, projects such as the demolition of old residential areas, renovation of commercial buildings, and road widening are increasing, making the disposal of construction waste a real problem for many. A pile of waste concrete, bricks, and cement pavement sits there, and disposal costs money. But if you change your perspective—these aren't garbage, they are resources in the wrong place.
I. What can be recycled from construction waste?
Generally, the largest components of construction waste are concrete blocks and cement products, typically with strength grades between C20 and C40. After crushing and screening, this concrete can yield recycled aggregates of different particle sizes:
- 0-5mm → Recycled fine aggregate, usable for brick making and roadbed backfilling
- 5-10mm → Small-diameter recycled stone, used for permeable bricks and mortar
- 10-20mm → Conventional recycled coarse aggregate, used for low-grade concrete
- 20-35mm → Large-diameter recycled stone, used for road base and foundation reinforcement.
Recycled aggregates can be fully reused in building construction and road repair, and there are already many mature applications both domestically and internationally.
II. What equipment is needed? Impact Crusher + Screening Machine: Two Lines to the Rescue
Many people believe that processing construction waste requires a large set of equipment such as jaw crushers and cone crushers. However, for concrete of C40 grade and below, an impact crusher + vibrating screen is perfectly sufficient.
Why not use jaw crushers and cone crushers?
While concrete's compressive strength appears high (C40 = 40MPa), its impact resistance is very poor. The working principle of an impact crusher is precisely to use high-speed impact to "crush" the material from the inside, resulting in extremely high concrete crushing efficiency, good output particle shape, fewer needle-like and flaky particles, and higher quality recycled aggregate.
III. A Key Factor Easily Overlooked: Iron Removal
Concrete in construction waste is not clean—it contains reinforcing bars, wires, and embedded parts. If these steel components enter the crusher, they can damage the hammers at best, and jam the rotor at worst.
The Dainamu mobile impact crusher comes with a built-in permanent magnet iron removal system.
The equipment is equipped with a permanent magnet separator at the top. When the crushed material passes through the magnetic field area on the belt conveyor, iron nails, wires, and small steel rebar fragments mixed in with the stone are automatically attracted and separated.
This means: The crushed recycled stone has a lower iron content and is of higher quality.
The separated scrap iron can be recycled and sold separately.
It protects subsequent screening equipment from blockage by iron parts.
It generates revenue by simultaneously producing stones and collecting scrap iron.
IV. Advantages of Mobile Equipment: The Construction Site Becomes the Factory
Construction waste is characterized by its dispersed, non-centralized nature and high transportation costs. If you transport concrete from a demolition site to a fixed factory for crushing, the transportation costs alone could eat up all your profits.
Dainamu's tracked mobile impact crusher and mobile screening machine can be deployed directly to the construction site: An excavator feeds construction waste into the impact crusher's hopper. The impact crusher performs coarse crushing and iron removal. The material is then sent to the mobile screening machine for grading. Recycled aggregates of different particle sizes are directly loaded onto trucks and transported away. No foundation is needed, no mains power connection is required, and no conveyor belt repairs are necessary. One loader feeds the material, and two machines operate on one production line.
V. Real-world Case Studies
We have validated this solution in multiple construction waste recycling projects. Taking a city redevelopment project as an example:
Raw materials: Concrete blocks, floor slabs, beams, and columns (C30-C40) from demolished old residential areas
Equipment: SF-380D mobile impact crusher + SS-7018 mobile screening machine
Capacity: Approximately 180-200 tons/hour
Finished products: Three types of recycled aggregate (0-5mm, 5-10mm, 10-20mm)
Iron removal effect: Approximately 15 tons of scrap steel are separated from each ton of raw material.
The recycled aggregate is directly supplied to local brick factories and road construction companies, while the scrap steel is sold separately. The overall project profitability is considerable.
VI. Economic Calculation
Assuming a construction waste recycling project with a daily processing capacity of 2000 tons:
- Sales of recycled aggregates：Approximately 30-50 yuan/ton × 2000 tons = 60,000-100,000 yuan/day
- Scrap steel recycling：Approximately 2000-3000 yuan/ton × 30-50 tons = 6,000-15,000 yuan/day
Deducting labor, fuel consumption, and wear-resistant parts wear, the investment payback period for a mobile impact crusher + screening line is typically 6-12 months.
VII. Conclusion
Construction waste recycling is not just a concept; it's a proven business model. The core logic is simple:
C40 and below concrete → Impact crusher is sufficient, no need for hard rock equipment
Iron removal is crucial → Permanent magnet separator is standard equipment, producing both gravel and scrap iron
Mobile is the most cost-effective → Drive directly to the construction site for crushing, saving on transportation costs, which translates to reduced profits
There's a market for recycled aggregates → Brick factories, roadbed manufacturers, and concrete mixing plants all require them
If you are considering entering the construction waste recycling field, or if you have demolition projects and don't know how to handle waste, please contact us. Dainamu provides complete solutions from equipment selection to process design.
Anhui Dainamu Heavy Industry Technology Co., Ltd.
Tel/WhatsApp: +86 15385175652
Email: chinadainamu@gmail.com
Production Base: No. 43 Tangkou Road, Feixi Economic Development Zone, Hefei City, Anhui Province