Working with Concrete

Concrete (as dry cement) is available in many dry forms and comes as a raw powder in many sizes – in small sacks for the home user, or in huge containers for builders, construction engineers, and many other professional tradesmen. Concrete is now perhaps the most commonly used material on the planet. It is everywhere – in roads and paths, walls, houses, bridges; and has a wonderful versatility in that it can be mixed with many other materials like stone, bitumen, asphalt, to give greater strength to structures and surfaces.

window.google_render_ad(); But it is only in its most rawest and natural state that concrete could be described as green, and only as a powder can concrete be biodegradable, when it is most similar to its original form. In working with concrete, when it is mixed and churned with water, it becomes loose and putty like, and from this point on there is a short period when it can be applied before it starts to set and harden.

This industrial use of concrete is the essence of all building projects: when the material comes out of the mixer and is laid down, or used to form bricks, or mixed with other materials. There can be a lot of industrial waste during this process: much of the concrete will not be used immediately, and will harden and not be used. Also a lot of water can be used, and wasted during this process, which is not so green or environmentally friendly. Pollution of water can also occur at this and every stage of the process – from extraction of concrete through to its eventual application – and particularly if this water then becomes ground water or reaches the river systems, the natural environment can become polluted and degraded.