Encapsulating soil residues in concrete: an eco-efficient approach

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The goal of this partnership is to develop low carbon concrete products that reuse soils normally destined for landfills. This work is important for Canada in reducing the environmental impact of using valuable land resources for storing low value soils. In most cases, heavy trucks send waste soils to the landfills, which may include contaminated soils that do not undergo treatment before burial, thus posing risks of secondary contamination of the surrounding environment. In parallel, manufacturers of industrial concrete products use virgin resources for many low value applications that could be addressed by recycled and reused materials. Although soil remediation technologies do exist, there are very few companies that have adopted these methods due to the low price point set by the landfill industry at the intake of the materials. By creating a market for this soil, there becomes an economic incentive to assess soils and apply decontamination strategies to it. Our solution will increase the economic value of the materials through the following: i) adapt advanced mix-design techniques to optimize the use of low value soil fractions as substitutes for quarried raw materials in the production of concrete products ii) utilize alternative binders and materials such as supplementary cementing materials , inert fillers , nanoparticles, etc., to enhance the short- and long-term performance while decreasing the carbon footprint of concrete, and; iii) attest the durability and long-term performance of eco-efficient mixtures by following the behaviour of the derived products under harsh environmental conditions such as the ones found in Canada.