By: Amy Pastor, PE, CxA, LEED Fellow, ENV SP, Vice President – Sustainability | EXP
Addressing climate change in the construction industry requires resourcefulness and innovative solutions. The construction industry is responsible for 39% of greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainability experts are working to reduce this number through new initiatives. In partnership with public and private sectors, we’re finding ways to reclaim waste as a resource.
Toronto Area Road Builders Association (TARBA) recently launched their Recycled Crushed Aggregates (RCA) Advocacy Campaign. This campaign is a partnership between TARBA and some of Ontario’s most influential infrastructure and engineering organizations, including Concrete Ontario, Good Roads, Greater Toronto Sewer and Watermain Construction Association, Heavy Civil Association of Toronto, Ontario Road Builders Association, Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario, Ontario Sand, Stone and Gravel Association and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. This initiative is an opportunity to push for more resourceful methods in construction. Our sustainability team, alongside EXP concrete specialists and geotechnical engineers, worked with TARBA to author reports and conduct studies to confirm that the RCA quality meets, and in some cases exceeds, requirements of the municipal and provincial specifications.
Utilizing RCA allows industries to rethink materials used for buildings and roadways. As the construction industry looks to reduce emissions, create resilient infrastructure and manage costs, RCA reduces reliance on new materials and supports a circular economy. Through this initiative, TARBA aims to advocate for the use of RCA, which has been underutilized across Toronto.
From rubble to resource
Recycled Concrete Aggregate is a sustainable construction material that is made from crushed and processed asphalt and concrete from older structures and roads. The material is diverted from the landfill and repurposed into RCA. Recent technological advancements in sorting and grading have made RCA an even more reliable and consistent material. When used in new construction, projects realize a reduced environmental footprint. By eliminating the process of mining for new materials from a quarry, projects also eliminate transportation emissions and costs associated with moving the material from the quarry to the site. RCA can be used for a wide range of purposes, in any instance where new concrete would typically be used. Overall, using RCA has proved to be a more economical source of aggregate compared to newly mined aggregate. It is noted that producing recycled aggregate for reuse is more cost-effective than sending unwanted materials to landfill and incurring a landfill tipping fee. By removing both the waste disposal and new material production costs, transportation costs for each specific project are significantly reduced.
Credit: TARBA
It starts with leadership
The Ministry of Ontario and the City of Toronto have already started to showcase the effects of policy aligning with innovation. Through educating stakeholders on the advantages of RCA, impactful partnerships between innovative infrastructure organizations and policymakers can lead to continued advancement in RCA and cross-sector collaboration to accelerate adoption and innovation. If governments were mandating a minimum of 20% RCA in infrastructure construction projects, local governments could save more than $260 million and reduce enough greenhouse gas emissions to account for removing 15 million cars from the road annually. In Ontario, RCA has already replaced new concrete and asphalt on projects like Pearson International Airport, Toronto Area transit projects and house-enabling infrastructure in subdivisions.
By embracing RCA, we’re encouraging environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility and engineering excellence. Alongside TARBA, we’re committed to promoting sustainable construction practices and creating sustainable solutions for infrastructure.
Learn more about Sustainability at EXP, and contact me to learn about how to use Recycled Crushed Aggregate on your next project.