An overview on beneficial reuses of waste foundry sand asconstruction materials

Key words: 
• waste foundry sand /
• construction materials /
• beneficial reuse /
• environmental characteristics /
• concrete /
• flowable fills

Abstract: Waste foundry sand (WFS) is a fine byproduct generated in metal casting facilities. To beneficially reuse WFS is the ultimate solution coping with the vast volume disposal of WFS, which not only mitigates the burden on metal casting communities, but also eliminates potential impacts on the environment. This article presents an overview on the environmental and physical characteristics of WFS, and its applications in prevailing construction-based products, such as cement concrete, hot mixing asphalt, controlled low-strength materials, cement, road subbase, embankment, hydraulic barrier and landfill liners.It reports that ferrous WFS is basically nonhazardous and will not incur unacceptable adverse environmental impacts. Reuses in above applications as construction materials lead to building products or engineered works at least technically equivalent to those using traditional materials. Thus, WFS is qualified for such beneficial reuses.