A New Level of Circular Economy at SCHWENK Beton Berlin-Brandenburg

As demonstrated consistently over the past five years, SCHWENK Beton Berlin-Brandenburg is gaining momentum in the circular economy. By using recycled concrete materials, the company conserves valuable natural resources such as gravel and sand, making concrete production as resource-efficient and sustainable as possible.

To this end, aggregate in the form of certified RC material is delivered to the Friedrichsfelde, Schenkendorf, and Tempelhof plants by various suppliers. Production began to serve the traditionally strong self-pickup business, and the Friedrichsfelde plant is now capable of processing approximately 1,000 tons of RC material per month. To generate consistent demand and thereby become a reliable partner to the recycling industry, the use of recycled material is set to become increasingly standard.
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As part of a new investment in sustainability and CO₂ reduction, the company delivered recycled concrete for a machine foundation to the recycling firm Heim’s facility in Berlin-Marzahn. Among other materials, recycled concrete produced by Heim itself at the project site was used; this material was delivered for concrete production and then reused as recycled concrete aggregate (2–8 mm). As a result, approximately 10 tons of RC material were returned to the cycle for the aforementioned foundation.

Overall, this example shows that, with the right logistics in place, a circular economy works in practice. For a sustainable future, our goal must be to become more sustainable by utilizing RC materials and to conserve raw material sources. As far as the use of RC material as a raw material is concerned, the experience to date has been almost exclusively positive. Provided that certain specific rules for handling RC material are followed, processing it in a ready-mix concrete plant is problem-free, and the properties of both fresh and hardened concrete are comparable to those of conventional concrete.