Demolition of a Building: Is it Just a Pile of Rubble and Waste?

Published: 9/12, 2019

“Nothing gets thrown out!” That’s a lesson we have learned from our grandparents. Any scrap, can be reused, changed, or repurposed to become something different. Otherwise, you’re wasting money.

These concepts can be applied to demolition processes when we demolish to requalify, redevelop, or rebuild. Nothing gets wasted. Material is selected, processed as necessary and then reused, directly on-site or somewhere else.

Demolition is a process made up of various steps— time and cost— that represent the basis of a change. Performed correctly with the right machinery, demolition can become a great advantage for the company carrying it out. Sustainable demolition saves about 80% of the waste from the landfill. Selective demolition—green demolition or deconstruction—might seem more expensive, time- consuming, and more demanding, but the reality is that it saves time and money.

A company in Spain explains its approach to demolishing its old shed, then building another one in its place. What the company demolished was mostly reused to redo the building. A representative characterized the process as “destroying a building made with Legos and then using the same bricks to build a new one.”

The bulk of the work was done by the MB Crusher’s crusher bucket. The job was carried out with a single heavy machine, and with a single operator, at the same yard, quickly and with a minimum investment.

Other examples of this approach can be found around the world. A French company managed to recycle almost all the demolition debris of an old house and reuse it to build the new one directly on the same spot, forgetting all the logistics and disposal problems. In Turkey, one excavator and one operator recovered and recycled the road demolition material – a mixture of basalt and asphalt— directly on-site and at a very low cost. A BF90.3 crusher bucket attached to the excavator collected the excavated material, then crushed it and made it available on site for immediate re-use.

Selective demolition, therefore, is the first step towards a circular economy in which construction will give value to waste. The quality of the result depends on the type of demolition process and the machinery used for the separation and processing of the debris.

The MB Crusher product range is designed and built around these needs. For different sizes material, simply adjust the jaws of the crusher bucket or change the panels of the screening bucket directly on-site Similarly, installing the right accessory on the MB-G clamps allows users to handle different types of material onsite.

Anyone who uses MB machinery can gain value from the construction site waste, turning waste into quality material, converting the raw material into profit. Users can maximize the recovery of the waste material, thereby reducing transportation and landfill transfers costs. They also eliminate material repurchase costs.

Moreover, if well managed, a sustainable demolition project has a significant impact on the state of abandonment of many urban and industrial areas. Where a dilapidated house or warehouse is demolished and replaced with a new one, everyone benefits—the site owner, adjacent properties, and the community as a whole.