SUSTAINABLE GREEN CONSTRUCTION

Mechanical Concrete® was discovered while seeking a more effective civil engineering reuse for waste tires. Each year the USA generates over 300 million waste automotive tires . That’s one tire per person per year. And each year an estimated 650,000 tons of inert tire dust from tire wear enters the environment. According to the US EPA, recyclers grind 85 to 90% of the waste tires into shreds. About half these recycled tires are burned as tire-derived-fuel, TDF , which has 25% more BTU’s per ton than coal. Mechanical Concrete® is the first, widely applied, economical reuse for large quantities of waste tires.

The US EPA hierarchy of solid waste management and environmental sustainability, ranks reduction and reuse of materials as the highest activities ahead of recycle, waste to energy and disposal. Because Mechanical Concrete® actually reuses the worn tire’s intact, unique, three-dimensional structural properties, it both reuses and reduces materials and makes ‘going green’ pay a dividend instead of adding a cost.  Mechanical Concrete® stabilizes any construction site turning it green without adding expensive features.

Four Dimensional Sustainability is defined by four key characteristics:

  • economic viability
  • technical feasibility
  • environmental friendliness
  • social effectiveness

Mechanical Concrete® is economically viable. It reduces initial installation costs, maintenance costs, and life cycle costs. Mechanical Concrete® is technically superior. It is stronger, more effective, easier to use, faster to install and delivers better outcomes than conventional construction or comparable geosynthetic products.  Mechanical Concrete® is environmentally friendly.  It reuses a ubiquitous societal waste, uses less aggregate material for a better result, and uses less energy and labor. Mechanical Concrete® is socially supportive. It  uses unskilled labor, preserves scarce resources, improves human and machine productivity and is less disruptive.

EFFECTIVE

Mechanical Concrete® confinement system uses standard, waste automotive tires with both sidewalls removed as the geo-cylinders. These thin-walled tire-derived-geo-cylinders, TDGC, retain their structural tensile strength and function as the low cost, rugged, confinement element for Mechanical Concrete®.

Mechanical Concrete® is approved on a project basis by the West Virginia Division of Highways Materials Division.  The reuse of tire derived materials in civil engineering applications is encouraged by state and federal environmental agencies.

Nearly all road problems come from base failures.  The Mechanical Concrete® tire-derived-geo-cylinders economically create a virtually indestructible base so it basically eliminates most road maintenance problems, including:

  • Potholes & Ruts
  • Ditch Wall Collapse
  • Shoulder Erosion
  • Soft Sub-grades
  • Ditch & Channel Scour
  • Slips and Slides

Almost anyone can build a superior road base for industrial, highway or porous pavements using Mechanical Concrete®.  It’s fast, uses simple equipment and is ready to instantly support loads and resist erosion.