Street Sand Recycling - Ten Year Pilot Project

The City of Edmonton has researched available technology and established that washing of street sand has never beendone on a large-scale production basis. Staff has developed a process that they expect will recover up to 70 per cent ofthe material for re-use as traction aid for the following winter. This translates into an over 20 per cent reduction in totalmaterial landfilled. Related smaller benefits would take the form of reduced mining of virgin sand deposits, reduced fuelconsumption, and related impacts of long distance trucking of sand. The street sand recycling project consists of fourmajor processing functions: primary processing of waste and recyclable materials where street sweepings will beseparated into three streams: litter (plastics, paper, wood, etc.), large aggregates (stones, etc.) and, fine sands that willcontinue to the washing system; sand washing and fine sand removal; fines sand recovery and de-watering; and finalproduct stockpiling. The large (10 millimetres (mm) and greater) size aggregate material will be blended with crushedconcrete and asphalt to produce base coarse aggregates used in roadway construction and maintenance programs.Plastics, paper and other non-aggregate materials will be transferred to the City’s on-site composting and recyclingfacilities or landfilled (as appropriate). The system has been designed for low energy and minimal water use and has ahigh potential for replication.