AGGREGATES
CALGARY C&D FACILITY CLEANS UP CONTAMINATED MATERIALS WITH NEW PLANT A GRANT FROM EMISSIONS REDUCTION ALBERTA HELPS BUILD CDE WASH PLANT FOR CALGARY AGGREGATE RECYCLING BY LEE TOOP, EDITOR
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strong construction market in the centre of Alberta has brought with it a challenge that might not be the first thing that comes to mind when starting an earthmoving project: what to do with all of that dirt, especially when you don’t necessarily need it. Even more problematic is dirt coming from urban settings, where decades of development have left their mark in the form of contamination. As developments dig deeper and create more soil that must be remediated, a need for treatment grows – but facilities that can handle that treatment are few and far between, and often these soils are just landfilled. A Calgary company with roots in construction and aggregates is working within a provincial program to provide contractors in the region with a new alternative to handling contaminated soils. Calgary Aggregate Recycling will soon be using a new CDE-built custom plant to recycle problem soils back into the construction industry, while reducing the amount that is disposed of in landfills. A family-owned operation for 30 years, Calgary Aggregate Recycling was purchased in 2018 by KLS Earthworks and Environmental, itself an Indigenous-led company. KLS and CAR President Travis Powell, who owns the companies along with his brother Chris, said it was an opportunity to gain a long history of customers and reputation, while also giving his contracting firm a way to recycle its own aggregate waste. “We’ve started crushing gravel from various excavations around the greater Calgary area. If we run into pit run material, we take it to Calgary Aggregate, crush it, and turn it into
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heavyequipmentguide.ca | MAY 2022
CALGARY AGGREGATE RECYCLING HANDLES CONSTRUCTION WASTE FROM THE CITY AND SURROUNDING AREA.
gravel,” he said. “Rather than using that as fill now, we use it as high-value aggregates for our construction activities.”
RESPONSIBLE DISPOSAL OF WASTE A CHALLENGE
The move to purchase a recycling operation was important, as it remains a challenge to dispose of construction and demolition waste responsibly, Powell said. “It’s hard to get rid of asphalt and concrete unless you recycle it. There are still people who will bury it in coulees outside of the city, but that’s not something we wanted to do,” he said. “I think it’s a good selling feature that we can have this circular market within our own business.” There is a growing need for C&D recycling as more urban redevelopment takes place and aging infrastructure is replaced. While such recycling operations are common in Europe, the North American market is opening up to the potential. “Cities like Calgary are, in the grand scheme of things, pretty young compared to the cities over in Europe, but we are getting older and older every day. We have to rebuild a lot of this old infrastructure consistently to keep up,” Powell said. “So, we’re seeing a lot more debris and a lot more roads being torn up and widened, bridges getting widened or refurbished, all of these things. It’s really driving how much material we’re seeing.” That urban development is also driving the need for management of contaminated soils. Cities that have been growing for decades tend to leave a footprint environmentally that lingers
