Big pile of concrete -how to dipose?

[Northstar]

I have quite a big pile of concrete sitting on my homestead for many years, it's truely disgusting, not sure what to do with it? I could try to jack hammer into small bits and bury it, or maybe try to bulldoze it and bury it..

Any ideas on how to get rid of concrete? Concrete continues to emit co2 as it ages and never stops, hence it is one of the nastiest building materials out there!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environ...ct_of_concrete

Would love some good suggestions on how to dispose it.

[Raymond James]

Find a construction site looking for fill. Break it up and use as the base for a lane.

[jwal10]

Was it a slab or footing or? My neighbor used an old footing I dug out to build terraced gardens. Slab concrete can be broken up and used for garden paths, retaining walls, rip rap and patios. It can be recycled into road base. Burying it just gets it out of sight until dug up later....James

[Yvonne's hubby]

I have asked myself that same question just about every time I venture off of the farm to some city! They are just huge ugly stacks of concrete that apparently nobody knows how to get rid of.

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by Northstar

Concrete continues to emit co2 as it ages and never stops, hence it is one of the nastiest building materials out there!

Would love some good suggestions on how to dispose it.

Concrete cures by a chemical action as opposed to drying. When it does it releases CO2. After about 30 days the release is negligible, substantially less than the petunia in your flower pot. In its lifetime it will produce less carbon dioxide than your car does on a two hour trip.

If you find a way to move it, give it to a goat owner, or better yet get some goats yourself.

Amended to add: >>>>I was in error, it is calcium hydroxide that is released not CO2. [ 2Ca3SiO5 + 7H2O → 3(CaO)·2(SiO2)·4(H2O)(gel) + 3Ca(OH)2 ]So the CO2 footprint is only in the fuel used to crush the rock and make the Portland cement. In this case, since the concrete has already been made.... there is no subsequent carbon footprint at all.

[rambler]

Concrete gets run through a big crusher machine, past a magnet to pull out iron, and sized to replace small rock for sub base of roads, etc.

The trouble it is is not worth much, and you need to get the big concrete chunks to where the crusher is, so it is difficult to coordinate this and not have it cost you too much.

Burying it used to be common, but we find we try to put in electric, e
Water lines, or build a building or garden on that spot some years down the road, and there the darn concrete is in the way....

Paul

[Northstar]

Originally Posted by o&itw

Concrete cures by a chemical action as opposed to drying. When it does it releases CO2. After about 30 days the release is negligible, substantially less than the petunia in your flower pot. In its lifetime it will produce less carbon dioxide than your car does on a two hour trip.

If you find a way to move it, give it to a goat owner, or better yet get some goats yourself.

why goats?

[Harry Chickpea]

Originally Posted by Northstar

I have quite a big pile of concrete sitting on my homestead for many years, it's truely disgusting, not sure what to do with it? I could try to jack hammer into small bits and bury it, or maybe try to bulldoze it and bury it..

Any ideas on how to get rid of concrete? Concrete continues to emit co2 as it ages and never stops, hence it is one of the nastiest building materials out there!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environ...ct_of_concrete

Would love some good suggestions on how to dispose it.

WHERE on earth did you get that bit of disinformation??? It wasn't even in the notoriously inaccurate Wiki article. Yes, making concrete requires heat and that generally comes from sources like oil or natural gas or even coal, and yes, a part of the process involves taking limestone (which contains bound carbon dioxide) and releasing that to the air, so that the lime is more chemically able to bond. But continuing to emit CO2 as it ages??? Stick some in a pressure cooker and see for yourself just how much CO2 it emits.

You know what DOES continuously emit CO2 as it ages? You ain't goinna like the truth.... - compost. Good ol' organic compost continuously releases CO2 as it decays into a soil amendment. Give it enough time and as the organic mater deteriorates in the soil, even THAT turns into CO2.

As for it being ugly and a mess, oh yeah, I agree 100%. Advertise that you have clean fill and it can be put to use in some places where quarried stone would otherwise be used. Otherwise, the bulldozer idea is a good one.

[where I want to]

Originally Posted by Northstar

why goats?

They love to climb and will eat all weeds growing on the pile.
I use broken concrete for raised gardening beds. It is usually fairly uniform in thickness, stacks well and looks so much more natural than the cast concrete blocks that people buy. And if you're lucky it's free.
Think resource to be mined rather than waste to be buried.

[Shrek]

When my parents bought their country acreage 30 years ago there was a pile concrete from a slab house the previous owner had broken up and pushed to the side after the house had went wizard of oz.

As it was near where they wanted to put their double wide my father rented a back hoe/front end loader and let me play with the big Tonka toy for a couple of days digging a hole, pushing the busted slab chunks in, covering them over and leveling off my "play area" with the topsoil and seeded it as side lawn for the house.

[agmantoo]

Where I live recycled concrete is sold to compete with quarry stone and is much cheaper. IMO the crushed concrete is superior to the quarry stone for building a road base.. I built an 800+ ft road and used the crushed concrete and the road has held up nicely even with heavy road trucks using it frequently. I tried to get some crushed concrete recently and the two nearest sources were out. Possibly you could contact a crusher and if you have enough they may come and get what you have.

[floyd242]

You could use it to backfill a retaining wall if you need to flatten out a section of your property.

[edcopp]

Goats, like to climb on piles of rocks or cement. I think it makes them feel like they are "king of the hill". In the climbing process they wear their hoofs down on the rough surface. Something like filing your finger nails. So the goat does not need to have it's hoofs trimmed so often.

Some folks who keep goats will put a large piece of cement in the floor wher the goats go in and out of the shed/barn for the same reason. To provide a place where the goats can have some wear on the hoof parts; much like the activity might be in nature.

[Northstar]

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

WHERE on earth did you get that bit of disinformation??? It wasn't even in the notoriously inaccurate Wiki article. Yes, making concrete requires heat and that generally comes from sources like oil or natural gas or even coal, and yes, a part of the process involves taking limestone (which contains bound carbon dioxide) and releasing that to the air, so that the lime is more chemically able to bond. But continuing to emit CO2 as it ages??? Stick some in a pressure cooker and see for yourself just how much CO2 it emits.

You know what DOES continuously emit CO2 as it ages? You ain't goinna like the truth.... - compost. Good ol' organic compost continuously releases CO2 as it decays into a soil amendment. Give it enough time and as the organic mater deteriorates in the soil, even THAT turns into CO2.

As for it being ugly and a mess, oh yeah, I agree 100%. Advertise that you have clean fill and it can be put to use in some places where quarried stone would otherwise be used. Otherwise, the bulldozer idea is a good one.

Funny you ask Harry, I was just having a debate with my neighbor about the effects of concrete, they had a degree in environmental studies, just told me that it emits co2! As I was talking about the pile in my homestead.. anyways, I dont have a degree , so i took it for what its worth. After a little research I found that the biggest emitter of c02 is during the manufacturing process of concrete. Both the calcification process and the fossil fuels used to make it are the biggest emitters as mentioned. I didn't base my statement of that on wiki. sorry if you misconstrued that, however wiki does state "The cement industry is one of the primary producers of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas". So I am not spewing 100% propaganda.

As for something that can replace concrete, is something called "HEMPCRETE". Hempcrete is made from the pulpy core of industrial hemp and when mixed with lime makes blocks that are stronger and lighter than concrete and 10 times stronger than steel. It sequesters co2 as it ages all of its life ,houses could be and are being built with it here in the USA. This is one reason farmers should be allowed to farm industrial hemp not to mention its other 50,000 uses which was actually attached to the FARM BILL last week.

Appreciate all the responses, I had no idea goats like to file their hooves. Some great ideas rolling here.

[unregistered353870]

Yeah, concrete is a big CO2 producer in the manufacturing but that's already done with the concrete you have so there's nothing you can do about it. Depending on how close you are to a city and how much concrete you have, you might be able to find a crushing company who will come pick it up for free.

[o&itw]

Goats are usually found in countries where it is too dry or rocky tor raise animals like cattle. Even in many European countries, goats are herded up to the mountains in the summer and the lusher lower-lying pastures are used for cattle, etc. Because there is a lot of wear and tear on their hooves, the hooves naturally grow quickly. In most American pastures, the goats are not climbing rocky slopes, and therefore they require a fairly periodic hoof trim.

Many goat people like piles of big rocks, or concrete for their goats to play on. This is fun for the goats, and helps keep the hooves worn.

[Harry Chickpea]

"Funny you ask Harry, I was just having a debate with my neighbor about the effects of concrete, they had a degree in environmental studies, just told me that it emits co2! As I was talking about the pile in my homestead.. anyways, I dont have a degree , so i took it for what its worth."

I'm ecstatic that you did your own research, even if it was after the fact. If more people would just do that the world would be a far better place. You already know what I think of those people with the "degrees" (and the horse they rode in on) so I won't belabor that.

There are lots of variations for concrete that reduce the amount of lime actually used. The hempcrete might be fine if the temps are low enough to keep the cellulose in it intact. Just adding more aggregate to a mix reduces the impact.

[fishhead]

I'd advertise it as clean fill. Someone in your area may need some and be willing to load and haul it.

[o&itw]

See the amendment to my original post about the release of carbon dioxide.... there is none. It is calcium hydroxide that is released.

[AnchorageJim]

Did you know that goats are the number 1 cause for divorce in the United States?