Concrete crushing: Recycled materials used for road beds, fishing reefs Published Aug. 13, 2008 By Staff Sgt. Tanya Holditch Keesler News editor KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- The 81st Civil Engineer Squadron's concrete crushing program is making an impact on both the environment and the Air Force budget. The program began in 2001 as a joint partnership between 81st CES and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources to recycle concrete salvaged from on-base demolition projects. The excess concrete came from Triangle Vision projects," which called for the demolition of 12 three-story dormitories. The crushed concrete helped form 26 artificial reefs in local coastal waters. They were built to promote growth of aquatic life, which would in turn stimulate the local economy through tourism and consumer purchases such as boats, bait, licenses and tackle. The fact that the concrete didn't go into a landfill was a huge plus, said Teddy James, 81st CES environmental flight chief. "Keesler wasn't filling up landfills with something that wasn't going to decompose," Mr. James explained. Hurricane Katrina brought the project to a halt. "Now that the reef program was on hold, the concrete still needed a place to go," said Mr. James. "The road base project thought process was conceived by the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment and 81 CES engineers -- we firmly believed that concrete didn't need to go into a landfill. We didn't have the reef program anymore, so we had to figure out what to do with the concrete." Planned demolitions included the base exchange, the commissary and military family housing units. Now 81st CES uses the crushed concrete for road base. "Not only are we not filling up a landfill, but we don't have to buy the product to build the base of the roads," said Mr. James. "With all of the development in military housing, we have to build new roads to accommodate the construction development." So far, Keesler has diverted more than 30,000 tons of concrete for the road bed base in 2008 alone, but that amount continues to climb as home demolition continues. In the past year, 270 homes have been leveled. Nearly 97 percent of the waste from these demolitions is diverted into a reusable source, according to Mr. James. The Air Force goal for recycling all solid waste is currently 40 percent. "The performance management office in CE does a very good job of diverting the waste and reusing it," said Mr. James. The PMO was created as a temporary solution to manage the nearly $1 billion in military construction projects generated by Hurricane Katrina. "When Katrina came, engineering work (at Keesler) increased exponentially, so we needed a flight to take care of the engineering process for the projects taking place over the next several years," Mr. James pointed out. As rebuilding is completed, concrete recycling efforts won't be terminated. "We'll look for alternatives such as sending concrete from future projects to private sector recycling companies that use the material for items such as federal or state highway road base," said Mr. James.