Upcycling and Using Urbanite

Reader Contribution by Kyle Isacksen
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Chances are good that at this moment, close to wherever you live, there’s a pile of broken up concrete just waiting for a good home.  Most often it started life as a sidewalk, driveway or parking area but was recently demolished and is now waiting to be carted off to the landfill.  We call this material, “Urbanite” and love working with it.

New concrete is pricey and has a big environmental footprint (high embodied energy) what with all the mining and the heating involved to make Portland cement as well as its transport in big rigs. Therefore, urbanite is a good alternative for many projects.  In this article I’ll share some tips and uses of this abundant, free, salvageable urban waste material.  At our urban homestead I’ve used it for the bases of cob walls, foundations of earthen (cob) ovens, borders for our gardens and for our little front yard pond, paths, and as a parking surface.  We use it regularly as stem walls on cob buildings, too.

Finding Urbanite

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