Concrete makes up a large percentage of construction waste each year, and it can be hard to know how to get rid of it or whether or not you should try to recycle it. If you’ve got clean concrete waste, you should absolutely recycle it, but it can be time consuming to sort through concrete waste and determine how much of it is clean. If your concrete can’t be recycled, there are a few different waste disposal options, so you should choose the one that best suits you.

If you are having trouble deciding what to do with your concrete, it may be a good idea to ask a professional concrete removal specialist like 1300Rubbish for guidance about your concrete disposal options. It can also be difficult to remove concrete waste yourself, so hiring an experienced team could make the process much easier.

The first thing you’ll need to determine is whether your concrete waste is clean or contaminated. Concrete can easily become contaminated, particularly on construction sites where a number of different materials are being used. Construction sites can also easily accumulate mass amounts of waste, rubbish and debris, making it dangerous to continue with the work. That’s why it’s good to remove any waste as quickly and ethically as possible.

Concrete that hasn’t been contaminated with other materials is considered clean concrete. This might include concrete blocks, concrete slurry, concrete chunks, concrete rubble or concrete slabs.

If you want to get the most out of something that you’ve bought and you don’t want to just throw things away, you should try to reuse and repurpose things where you can. Old wooden furniture and different pieces from around the house can be broken up and used from other things. For example, you can turn an old bathtub in a garden bed or chop up an old chair and use it for things like picture frames or some shelves. The DIY possibilities are endless if you have a little know-how and you are good with your tools, so if you have some spare materials lying around it is always better to use them to make something totally new. If you reuse something that was once garbage and give it a new purpose, you will find that you will be able to get a second life out of something that you were just going to throw away. This means that you will have less waste cluttering up your home and you won’t have to throw anything away that is still worth keeping.

To get rid of oil stains on concrete, you can try using a paste like baking soda or powdered laundry detergent  to dissolve the stain. You could also try using a poultice – a combination of an absorbent material like kitty litter or sawdust and a strong solvent like acetone or lacquer thinner – to suck up the stain. Strong dish soap and a scrubbing brush may also do the trick.

To get rid of moss on a concrete slab, baking soda may also be effective. You should dust it over the affected area and then brush away the remnants after 24 hours. Some other methods you could try include:

• Using a pressure washer
• Pouring boiling water over it and then using a scrubbing brush
• Using a mix of vinegar and water and spraying it across

Efflorescence is a deposit of salt that has migrated to the surface of a porous material such as concrete. The best way to remove it is to use clean, pressurised water and a scrubbing brush. You may also wish to go over the loose salt with a scraper.

Removing wet paint from concrete shouldn’t require too much effort – just a lot of water, some detergent and a scrubbing brush. If you need to remove dry paint, you should try using a paint stripper and a pressurised hose.

The best way to remove green algae on concrete is to apply bleach directly on to the surface. You may be tempted to use a combination of water and vinegar instead, to avoid the pungent smell of bleach, but using bleach will keep the algae spores away for longer.
You should allow the bleach to sit on the surface for 10 minutes before rinsing it off with water.

If you would like to dispose of your concrete waste yourself to avoid a concrete removal cost there are a few different ways to do this, including:

• Renting a dumpster – concrete can be thrown into a dumpster, and so can other construction materials like bricks and asphalt. You can rent dumpsters of different sizes and weight capacities to suit your needs.
• Dropping it off at a landfill – you’ll need to contact the facility beforehand  if this is the option you decide to go with, to ensure that they’ll be able to accept it. This is a cheaper option, but may be time consuming if you have to make multiple trips, and is only suitable for those who drive a truck. You can also take the waste to a general waste management facility and they will take it to a landfill for you.

There is also a market for donating and selling new and used building materials.

• Sell it online – the old adage goes that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. This is true of building materials as much as anything else. Advertise your concrete, bricks, and other building waste online such as on Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace and you will be surprised how quickly they get picked up, either by fellow renovators, Facebook item flippers or even artists looking to work with new material.

• You can also donate materials to organisations in need, such as Habitat for Humanity, for example, who carry surplus building materials which are kindly donated by businesses and local philanthropists and community-minded people.  Keep in mind that used concrete is quite a specific, and slightly tricky material to reuse and recycle, and that the donations accepted will vary from store to store. Most will accept cabinets, doors, windows, flooring, bricks, and fencing, but not all will accept concrete, so call ahead or send an email to make sure before you lug it over.

If you’re looking for a sustainable solution to recycle concrete, you could also contact a building supplies retailer or landscaping company to see if they will take your concrete waste. A landscaping company may be able to use your concrete to build flower boxes, retaining walls or sidewalks. They can also use it for driveway paving, landscaping mulch or gravel substitutes. However, these companies may not offer pickup services.

It’s a very environmentally friendly solution to reuse concrete for different purposes wherever possible, because it reduces the amount of construction waste and feeds it directly back into use.

Hiring an experienced team of concrete removal specialists to take care of your concrete disposal can save you the time and manual labour required to do it yourself. The specialists at 1300Rubbish can offer easy concrete removal with minimal disruptions, and take the process of concrete recycling out of your hands.

1300Rubbish can also assist with other rubbish removal jobs on a construction site, including the disposal of building materials or construction debris like metal, steel, glass and hazardous waste.