How to recover and reuse most of the soil on different construction sites

The world could run out of topsoil – in about 60 years if we continue to degrade it at the current rate.

© MB Crusher

In the European Parliament, the first steps for preservation have been taken with the approval of the Nature Restoration Law (NRL), a Regulation that provides for the restoration of at least 30 % of natural habitats, and the increase of urban green spaces by 2030.

 

What impact do construction sites have in preserving the soil?

Removing the topsoil to allow for infrastructure construction is standard practice. Excavated earth is usually classified as waste, but it ceases to be waste if it is fully recovered. Recycling and reusing the soil becomes essential not only to save the costs associated with disposal and the potential repurchase of new material, but also to prevent the contamination of the soil with materials from other areas.

With MB Crusher attachments installed on heavy equipment already present on site, material management becomes easier, more sustainable, and economically in terms of time.

  © MB Crusher

Invasive weeds leave Versailles

At the western end of the Château de Versailles, France, right on the edge of the Gally Gardens, a 10-t-Mecalac excavator works in the materials storage depot. An MB-S10 Screening Bucket is installed at the end of its boom. "We needed to sift the excavated material to gather soil and compost to arrange the flower beds and lawns of the Gardens – says Joël Fauvel, Deputy Director of the Department of Gardens of Trianon and Marly – Before our gardeners had to manually load the excavated soil on a mechanical sieve mounted on a frame. Now with the MB Crusher Screening Bucket, separating the materials is much easier and faster."

The most important thing – continues Fauvel – is that the soil processed with the MB Screening Bucket has a better quality as it contains fewer weed roots and purity is essential to be able to reuse it. Now the soil that returns to the ground is much cleaner.

 

Going back to where you came from

There are as many as 15 km of excavations to be filled during the installation of aqueducts and sewage networks in a small Peruvian community – El Porvenir. Using the same excavated material for bedding is beneficial for the construction site, but more importantly, it benefits the environment. A challenging task during the rainy season is processing the excavated material when it is wet. The problem was solved by installing an MB Crusher MB-HDS212 Padding Bucket on a Bobcat mini-excavator already on site. The advantages: no need to buy filling materials, no truck trips to and from the construction site, and the extracted soil returns – clean – to its place.

 

Everything is locally sourced

During excavation work, the soil is often mixed with branches, stones, roots, and other "contaminating" materials. Why send everything to a landfill? With the MB-HDS Padding Bucket you can easily and quickly separate impurities from the earth, and then reuse the soil. In Germany, a construction site had this exact problem: the nearest landfill was about 35 km away and this would result in an increase in time and costs. The problem was solved by using an MB-HDS207 Padding Bucket to screen the material and separate the soil from the stones, and roots.

The environment functions like an organism: a single local intervention can have consequences for the entire system. If this balance is disrupted, the entire system is at risk of being destroyed. How can you help? By simply processing the excavated earth with MB Crusher equipment to obtain "clean" soil, facilitate on-site operations and contribute to environmental protection. And all you have to do is use the equipment already on the job site.

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