North Raleigh Today

The City of Raleigh has undertaken an extensive recycling initiative following the demolition of its old police headquarters to make way for the new Raleigh City Hall. Approximately 97 percent of the rubble, amounting to 2,739 tons of steel, concrete, and brick, was recycled.

Brasfield & Gorrie, the construction contractor for the project, managed the separation and transportation of recyclable materials to specialized recycling sites. The move aligns with a broader industry trend toward sustainability in construction.

Recycling construction waste offers significant cost-saving benefits and environmental advantages by diverting large amounts of materials from landfills and reintroducing them into other projects. It also conserves energy and resources.

Steel is a particularly noteworthy material in this context due to its ability to be recycled repeatedly without losing strength. "More than 90% of all steel used in construction projects is recycled," according to industry data. Steel's composition as an iron alloy includes metals such as carbon, iron, and tin. Other continuously recyclable metals include aluminum, copper, and brass.

In addition to reusing structural pieces like beams and columns without reprocessing them, scrap steel can be melted down for new uses.

Concrete recycling involves breaking down concrete rubble from demolished structures into usable materials after removing unwanted substances like dirt. The resulting mixture is crushed into various sizes for different applications. Recycled concrete finds use in road gravel and new building materials despite having slightly lower strength than traditional concrete; innovations have improved its quality significantly.

The City aims for a greener future with numerous sustainability features incorporated into the new City Hall building, which will achieve Silver LEED certification.

For more information about this project, visit the East Civic Tower Project page.

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