Recycled material from building rubble to improve soft, fine-grained soils

Background

At present, a considerable proportion of the excavated soil material produced during construction work (without environmentally hazardous substances) is still being backfilled or deposited in Germany instead of being reused or reused of high quality. In order to conserve primary raw materials, the aim should be to treat uncontaminated soil material with corresponding properties primarily as a building material and not as a backfill or even as waste. However, a significant proportion of the material currently stored has geotechnical properties that do not permit immediate further use. Such soils require soil treatment to improve their structural properties. Studies carried out at the Geotechnical Centre of the Technical University of Munich show the great potential of a mineral waste product from building rubble (mainly grain size 0/4 mm) for improving the soil of soft, fine-grained soils.