Resources for the city: sustainable use of bedrock resources for concrete production with examples from Sweden

Journal article, 2009

Rock aggregate products are essential for our infrastructure and society as a whole. Rock aggregates are mainly used for road and railroad construction and for the manufacture of asphalt and concrete. High-quality, low-cost, environmentally friendly rock aggregates and recycling of materials are important resources for the development of a sustainable society. The relative amount of crushed bedrock is steadily increasing, as a result of the joint effort by the authorities and industry to save natural gravel. It is important to support this trend by all possible means. One of the primary problems is the fact that the available resources of natural aggregates are diminishing in most of Europe. To protect the natural environment, the use of natural sand and gravel aggregates must be reduced and crushed aggregates, instead, will have to be used in concrete production in the future. The paper focuses on this problem and presents proposals for how to deal with it by co-operative research.