Is Concrete Sustainable?
Sustainability is a word we hear a lot lately, especially in the construction industry. As the most widely-used constructional material in the world, concrete has a reputation for being an eco-friendly building material for its long life, strength, and durability.
A few examples of concrete’s sustainability:
Concrete structures are long-lived, and pavements have an average service life of 30-50 years, depending on the wear on the concrete.
Concrete has a low life-cycle cost and consumes minimum materials, energy, and other resources for construction, and requires little to no maintenance throughout its service life.
Concrete is safe and reliable, since it’s fire-resistant and doesn't burn, rot, or rust. Concrete pavements are more resilient to heavy vehicles and traffic, have better visibility at night, shorter vehicle stopping distances in bad weather, and require fewer work zones over the life of the pavement.
Concrete construction creates minimal waste and can be produced in the quantities needed for each project, reducing further waste.
After a concrete structure has served its original purpose, the concrete can be crushed and recycled into aggregate for use in new concrete or as backfill or road base.
Like many others in our field, Mathews Readymix is proud to be a part of sustainability in concrete movement through our membership with Build with Strength. You can feel confident we’re a sustainability-minded company and are always looking for ways to incorporate this mission in our work practices.
What sustainability looks like at Mathews Readymix
So what does that actually look like? Here are just a couple of examples of ways we incorporate sustainability into our everyday practices at Mathews Readymix:
Recycled water: When our concrete trucks and the interior barrels need a bath after mixing up the concrete, we only use recycled water to wash them down.
Washout material: Our nextdoor neighbors at our Chico plant, Knife River Construction, take our washout material (the leftover bits of concrete and aggregate that come out after washing the trucks) to add to their recycling pile. Knife River then uses this recycled material for road base projects.
While Mathews Readymix does not currently use any recycled aggregates, we are exploring this and are continuously looking for ways to further their sustainability efforts.
Considering concrete for your next project? Here are 7 more reasons why it’s the sustainable building material of choice!