Pilot project with recycled aggregates
Cemex Deutschland AG is supplying approximately 3,800 m² of ready-mixed concrete to Campus Nord of the Humboldt University in Berlin. The awarding authority, the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, asks for a special building material: The new research and laboratory building for life sciences will be built almost completely of a concrete that is manufactured with a proportional amount of recycled aggregates (RC aggregates). For the new building in an architecturally demanding design, Cemex Deutschland has developed a concrete of grade C30/37 with an aggregate fraction of 8/16 mm consisting of scrap concrete that is professionally recycled – i.e. made of concrete rubble being prepared to the grain size required by means of crushers or impact mills.
“Concretes with recycled aggregates have to meet the same requirements as every conventional ready-mixed concrete. Thus, there is no difference in the fresh nor hardened concrete properties,” states Marcel Busch, Regional Manager Mineral Raw Material North-East of Cemex Deutschland AG. “Products made of recycled building materials have already proven themselves in the field of road and underground construction. A concrete made of recycled aggregates is used as a structural concrete in building construction for the new building of the Humboldt University in Berlin for the first time. We are very pleased to take part in this pilot project.”
According to the Berlin Senate there will be further projects, because the recycling of building materials can contribute to minimizing the generation of primary mineral raw materials and to conserving natural resources in building construction too.
