Recycling

When It Comes to Recycled Materials, We Totally Crush It

At Elder, we take what others see as waste and turn it into rock-solid results. By crushing existing concrete and asphalt, we create high-quality fill and sub-base material that forms the foundation for roads, parking lots, and new construction.

Our material can be made Department of Transportation (DOT) approved, with sizes ranging from ¾” – 3” ready to support both public and private projects. And with multiple mobile crushing units, we can bring the operation to your jobsite, cutting down on trucking costs and keeping your project moving without missing a beat.

At Elder, what we crush helps build what’s next.

Here’s how it works:

To get started, the raw material (concrete or asphalt) needs to be prepped down to the right size — which varies depending on the equipment being used. At Elder, we operate two types of crushers: jaw crushers and impact crushers. Each one plays a part in turning oversized chunks into clean, usable product.

The Jaw Crusher
This machine handles the heavy lifting, and the heavy chunks. Material is fed into a large hopper, where it’s moved into the “throat” of the crusher. Inside, two plates form a V: one stays still while the other moves back and forth, crushing the material smaller and smaller as it drops down. Once it’s compact enough, it falls through to a conveyor belt that carries it away, usually to our next step: the impact crusher.
The Impact Crusher
This is where the magic happens. The material drops into the hopper and through the throat into a chamber housing a high-speed spinning rotor. Attached to that rotor? Blow bars — heavy-duty blades that strike the material as it falls, breaking it into even smaller pieces. When the chunks are small enough, they fall to another conveyor and move to the next phase.
The Screen Deck
Think of this as the sorter. Material drops onto the vibrating screen deck, which separates it by size. If it meets spec, it’s routed out on a conveyor as usable product. If not? It’s sent back through the system for another round with the impactor. By switching out screen sizes, we can customize the final product — from fine fill to larger sub-base material.