Chandler’s Sand and Gravel’s Inert Debris Engineered Fill Operation in Palos Verdes, Calif., is broken down into five key areas:
1. Landfill. All non-recycled products, including brick and porcelain, are compacted as part of an ongoing reclamation project.
2. Clean dirt. This is all stockpiled for cover. Vice President Trevor Wood says the operation still needs about 1 million tons of clean dirt for its reclamation purposes.
3. Clean crushables. Represents some material processed in Chandler’s fourth area.
4. Concrete-asphalt combination. Municipalities are the primary source of this material. Chandler’s screens this and takes it to the third area.
5. Clean concrete. This is an area Chandler’s opened about one year ago.
“We’re stockpiling clean concrete,” Wood says. “We’re finding a lot of municipalities and school districts don’t approve of CMB (crushed miscellaneous base). The asphalt concerns them near water tables, so they always go to natural [aggregate] base.”
As an alternative, Chandler’s is creating a natural concrete base. Wood says school districts are finding it to be a suitable product.
“Here in California, it’s in the very beginning stages,” he says. “We already have a few orders of about 50,000 tons coming up.”
Another area Chandler’s is exploring is recycled asphalt shingles, which Wood sees as a market that has some possibilities. Still, Wood believes more research needs to be done before Chandler’s makes a serious commitment to them.
“There’s not a lot of research being done to find out if shredding them makes the oil content better,” he says. “The process of shredding is very costly and requires lots of maintenance. Machines are expensive, and every day of maintenance is expensive.
“What you’re finding are a lot of commercial-grade asphalt shingles in which the petroleum percentage is at about 20 percent. That will save [customers] money versus buying gas or petroleum oil. It’s a blend, just like using RAP (reclaimed asphalt pavement). We currently screen asphalt grindings for reuse for dust-control purposes and yard roads.”