Are you unsure what to do with an empty concrete bag after you have finished with it? Then in this article, we’ll investigate can you recycle concrete bags?
You can recycle concrete bags that are made of paper. Many manufacturers also make plastic concrete bags, if yours are made of plastic, you will not be able to recycle them and will need to put them in your general waste bin.
Are you looking for some creative ways of upcycling empty cement bags? What about hardened cement bags? We’ll investigate it all further coming up next in this article.
What Can I Do With Empty Cement Bags?
So you’ve just finished with a couple of bags of cement and now you are wondering what you should do with the leftover bags. But wait! Before you throw them out, consider this, there are tons of upcycling and recycling ideas out there for empty cement bags.
Here are just a few ideas that you might like:
- Use them to store construction debris. If you are working on a building project, you no doubt have a lot of heavy debris that you could use gathering up. A cement bag is the perfect home for these large pieces as they are very robust.
- Fill them with sand. You can then leave them near your house for flood protection during the rainy season.
- Make paper mache. Soak paper bags in flour and water and let the kids’ imaginations run wild.
- Keep them as fire starters in the winter. Paper bags are perfect for getting fires started.
- Create a barrier to water flow. Is your construction near a body of water? Then old concrete bags can create a barrier to keep the water away from your building materials.
But what if upcycling your cement bags really just isn’t your thing? Then you can either recycle them or throw them away.
What you should do depends on the material that your cement bags are made of. If they are made of plastic, you will have to put them in your general waste bin.
They cannot be recycled. If they are made of paper, you can put them in your home recycling.
What to Do With Concrete Bags That Have Hardened?
We’ve all had it happen. The concrete has hardened inside the bag and now you can’t separate the bag from the concrete.
It feels like such a waste of materials as you can no longer use the bag or the concrete. Or can you? Take a look at a couple of things that you can do when concrete hardens inside a bag.
- Use a concrete saw to cut the concrete into blocks. Use the blocks for landscaping around your yard. You can make paving stones out of concrete if you have enough blocks.
- Make raised garden beds. The concrete blocks can be fashioned into raised beds that will give your garden some attractive levels.
- Use a concrete saw and cut some driveway blocks. You can use the blocks to create a border for the drive.
The tips we just mentioned are ideal for making something out of large concrete blocks. But, you can also smash your concrete with a mallet and turn it into fine pieces of concrete dust. (If you’re not sure how to loosen concrete, take a look at this video.) Once you have concrete dust, you will be able to make many things. You can use the concrete dust in the following ways:
- Make your own concrete pea gravel or concrete crushed rock
- Fill the bottom of a planter to help with drainage
- Fill potholes and cracks
Can I Use Cement That Has Gone Hard in the Bag?
Do you have a bit of cement that has gone hard in the bag? Then, don’t despair, you can still use it! What should you do with it? Well, you can use a mallet to crush it and then use it as a filler for potholes and cracks.
You could even use the fine pieces of concrete to help plant drainage.
Alternatively, you can cut the cement into smaller blocks. You will then be able to use the blocks for landscaping around your yard.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve just finished a construction project in your home or place of work, you might have a lot of leftover concrete bags lying around.
How should you get rid of them? Can you recycle concrete bags?
This article has helped us to see that you can recycle paper concrete bags. To do so, simply pop them in your home recycling bin. If your concrete bags are made of plastic, you will need to throw them in your normal household waste bin to get rid of them.
Alternatively, you can upcycle them and find a use for them around the home. There is no end to the possibilities!
