A Proposal for the Use of Recycled Aggregates in Concrete in Greece

Regulations for building materials in Greece do not allow for the use of recycled aggregates in concrete. The HERACLES Group, aiming to motivate the adoption of provisions in the national regulation, launched a project to evaluate the safe use of recycled aggregates in ready-mix concrete units. In this report, updated results are presented comparing the technical properties of concrete mixes containing only crushed limestone aggregates (reference mixes) and mixes containing partially replaced crushed limestone aggregates with recycled aggregates (control mixes). The current results indicate equivalence between the reference and control compositions in terms of both physicomechanical and durability properties. These experimental results and the practices of other European countries indicate that in Greece, based on EN 12620 and EN 206 standards, it is at least safe to use recycled coarse aggregates (≥4 mm) of classes Rc90 and Rcu95 with production and quality certification and a substitution rate up to 20% of crushed limestone aggregates. In addition, the application concerns non-prestressed concrete with a strength class up to C30/37 and an exposure class up to XS1.