Study on Increasing the Usage of Recovered Mineral Components in Federally Funded Projects Involving Procurement of Cement or Concrete

Section 6017(a) of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, P.L. 109-59, Aug. 10, 2005 (SAFETEA-LU), directs EPA to, “…conduct a study to determine the extent to which procurement requirements, when fully implemented…may realize energy savings and environmental benefits attainable with substitution of recovered mineral components in cement used in cement or concrete projects.”

SAFETEA-LU directs EPA to submit a report to Congress within 30 months of the enactment of SAFETEA-LU that addresses the following requirements:

Quantify the extent to which recovered mineral components are being substituted for portland cement, particularly as a result of current procurement requirements.
Quantify the energy savings and environmental benefits associated with that substitution.
Identify all barriers in procurement requirements to greater realization of energy savings and environmental benefits, including barriers resulting from exceptions from current law.
Identify potential mechanisms to achieve greater substitution of recovered mineral components in types of cement and concrete projects for which recovered material components historically have not been used or have been used only minimally.
Evaluate the feasibility of establishing guidelines or standards for optimized substitution rates of recovered material component in those cement and concrete projects.
Identify any potential environmental or economic effects that may result from greater substitution of recovered mineral components in these cement and concrete projects.

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Full Document (PDF) (225 pp, 1.7MB)
Title Page (PDF) (1 pg, 83K)
Table of Contents (PDF) (2 pp, 14K)
Executive Summary (PDF) (12 pp, 71K)
Chapter 1: Introduction (PDF) (9 pp, 54K)
Chapter 2: Industry Overview, Materials Evaluated and Current RMC Substitution Levels (PDF) (22 pp, 118K)
Chapter 3: Energy and Environmental Benefits of RMC Use in Federal Concrete Projects (PDF) (18 pp, 99K)
Chapter 4: Barriers to Increased RMC Substitution (PDF) (11 pp, 127K)
Chapter 5: Mechanisms to Increase Beneficial Use of RMC (PDF) (17 pp, 79K)
Chapter 6: Conclusions (PDF) (4 pp, 39K)
References (PDF) (6 pp, 22K)
Glossary (PDF) (6 pp, 27K)
Abbreviations and Acronyms (PDF) (3 pp, 29K)
Appendix A: Overview of Portland Cement and Concrete (PDF) (13 pp, 157K)
Appendix B: Background of Recovered Mineral Components (PDF) (24 pp, 660K)
Appendix C: Cement and RMC Producers (PDF) (29 pp, 152K)
Appendix D: RMC Beneficial Use Model - Technical Approach (PDF) (44 pp, 272K)
Appendix E: Summary of Industry Representative Comments on Mechanisms to Increase RMC Substitution (PDF) (4 pp, 29K)