Materials handling specialist IMS Engineering are supplying a range of recycling solutions for the construction industry, in conjunction with its technology partners Hazemag, Neuenhauser and Haahjem from Norway.

With the imminent introduction of legislation to curb landfill waste by reducing the creation of waste at source, the construction industry is beginning to realise it can unlock significant value from construction and demolition waste, says IMS Engineering construction materials and recycling sales manager Jonathan Smith.

"In most developed countries, from 15% to 20% of waste ends up on landfill sites. In South Africa, this number is closer to 80%, with a considerable portion of it being building rubble. Faced with the increasing cost of building materials, dumping and fuel, it makes sense to reuse useful construction materials and sell the rest, such as steel reinforcing, to another recycler, instead of simply trucking loads of discarded building material to landfill sites," he explains.

Technology solutions from IMS Engineering to meet recycling requirements include horizontal shaft impact crushers from Hazemag. "The company produces a robust and effective crushing plant for demolition rubble and concrete debris, broken road paving, asphalt, railway sleepers and blocks," adds Smith.

The mobile crushing recycling plants are designed to separate reinforcing steel and crushed materials into two saleable products. A Hazemag screening and air-pressurised soft and organic materials separating plant can be added to further clean up the saleable, recycled material aggregate.

IMS Engineering's Haahjem crawler-track crushers (CTCs) were designed for the demanding Scandinavian and Northern European hard-rock quarrying sector and recycling markets. The range includes a primary crusher aggregate plant capable of delivering four end-product stockpiles. The CTC can also be configured to crush reinforced concrete, and separate reinforcing steel and crushed concrete, into two separate saleable products.

To achieve this, the CTC has a tiltable jaw crusher with a discharge screen underneath it. Tilting the jaw at an angle creates extra space under the crusher discharge, which provides an improved reinforcing steel flow onto the crusher's dead plate feeder and screen. Discharging material onto a dead plate feeder eliminates the need to continually repair or replace conveyor belts, which would be cut by the steel reinforcing bars, as is the case with conventional competitive mobile units.

A slewable rear conveyor, which in the concrete recycling format is positioned at a 90 degree angle to the discharging screen/feeder, removes crushed concrete to a stockpile. At the screen discharge, a permanent self-cleaning magnetic separator is fitted to remove the steel in the direction of material flow.

Neuenhauser's Super Screener, can screen soils and contaminated soils, gravels, compost and biological materials, building rubble, mined aggregate, clay and vegetation overgrowth, contaminated mine and quarry stockpiles and dumps. In crawler or wheel-mounted plant format, the Super Screener can produce two or three fractions simultaneously, as well as different particle sizes, and the decks can also be provided for fixed plant.

Smith says Neuenhauser technology uses rotating shafts, incorporating hard rubble or polyurethane screening stars, sized to suit the application. Material is transported over the screen by the rotating motion of the screen's stars, while fines fall between them. The cut size of the screen can be changed online, by changing the rotating star's speed.

"In the construction industry, the Super Screener can be used to process extremely wet and sticky materials or where organic material or stringy material needs to be removed from rubble, soil or aggregate. Of particular benefit in recycling, is the screen's ability to screen organics and compost," concludes Smith.