Asbestos fibers may be dangerous but they can be recycled into useful applications. After the removal, professionals have three approaches that convert asbestos into a non-toxic material and allow it to be re-used.
While the process can be expensive and complex, here’s how asbestos can be recycled:
- Heating: Using a sodium hydroxide solution to heat asbestos at a temperature above 1250-degree Celsius helps break down the fibers. This leads to its thermal decomposition, providing a material that can be used as a non-hazardous glass.
- Microwave Treatment: A microwave thermal treatment can help convert asbestos fibers into porcelain tiles or ceramic bricks. Thus, it can be re-used as a construction material to construct beautiful but healthy buildings.
- High-Speed Milling: When asbestos is passed through a high-speed milling process, it creates non-hazardous inert materials out of the dangerous tiny fibers.
Benefits of Asbestos Recycling
Since asbestos is still dangerous until recycled, only professionals should do the job. And besides cutting down on the risks, here are other benefits of recycling these fibers.
- Permanent Risk Treatment: Breaking the structural bonds permanently removes the risks of asbestos infecting and causing health hazards.
- Waste Reduction: Even if dumped properly, asbestos is still waste. However, converting it into useful materials reduces waste.
- Useful Products: When recycling gives non-hazardous materials, those can be used to create useful products.
- Reducing Effective Costs of Abatement: Removing asbestos involves certain costs and recycling the material can help recover a part of that.
Thus, the next time you plan (or discuss with someone about) asbestos removal in Newcastle, you should prioritize hiring professionals who have a proper recycling process in place.
