{"id":1683,"date":"2026-06-09T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/?p=1683"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:30:10","slug":"giving-concrete-a-new-life-in-oulu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/news\/giving-concrete-a-new-life-in-oulu\/","title":{"rendered":"Giv\u00ading Con\u00adcrete a New Life in Oulu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kier\u00adtokaari is explor\u00ading var\u00adi\u00adous ways to uti\u00adlize side streams and waste mate\u00adri\u00adals. One such activ\u00adi\u00adty is the pro\u00adduc\u00adtion of con\u00adcrete ele\u00adments that has been ongo\u00ading for three years. These con\u00adgrete ele\u00adments that resem\u00adble giant Lego blocks, is not a new inven\u00adtion, but it can replace oth\u00ader con\u00adcrete struc\u00adtures, reduc\u00ading the over\u00adall need for con\u00adcrete and oth\u00ader vir\u00adgin mate\u00adri\u00adals.

Ini\u00adtial\u00adly, the need for these blocks came from with\u00adin the orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtion. They are used in the Rusko waste man\u00adage\u00adment cen\u00adter, for exam\u00adple as retain\u00ading walls and to sep\u00ada\u00adrate waste recep\u00adtion areas. Due to increas\u00ading demand, part of the pro\u00adduc\u00adtion has been sold to com\u00adpa\u00adnies. Cur\u00adrent\u00adly, cast\u00ading the blocks employs one per\u00adson full-time.

About 500 blocks are pro\u00adduced each year, and the goal is to increase pro\u00adduc\u00adtion to 1,000\u20131,500 units, which still requires con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable effort. In addi\u00adtion to the blocks, Kier\u00adtokaari is also inves\u00adti\u00adgat\u00ading what oth\u00ader prod\u00aducts could be made from sur\u00adplus con\u00adcrete.

Kier\u00adtokaari also par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpat\u00aded in the recent\u00adly com\u00adplet\u00aded Ash\u00adCy\u00adcle project, which involved a total of 27 research orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtions and indus\u00adtry part\u00adners. The project explored ways to uti\u00adlize ash from the incin\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of under\u00adused bio\u00admass, munic\u00adi\u00adpal waste, and sewage sludge. At the same time, valu\u00adable mate\u00adri\u00adals were recov\u00adered and new prod\u00aducts devel\u00adoped. In Fin\u00adland, the focus was on pre\u00adcast con\u00adcrete ele\u00adments and aggre\u00adgates for road base lay\u00aders. Bot\u00adtom ash was used as one of the com\u00adpo\u00adnents in con\u00adcrete cast\u00ading.

Con\u00adcrete can also be seen in var\u00adi\u00adous forms in the cen\u00adter of Oulu, for exam\u00adple as ping-pong tables and park bench\u00ades. The Sopuk\u00adka project, locat\u00aded in Pik\u00adisaari, aims to trans\u00adform under\u00aduti\u00adlized urban spaces into invit\u00ading meet\u00ading places. For exam\u00adple, Sopuk\u00adka has used chem\u00adi\u00adcal bar\u00adrels, bricks, ply\u00adwood, and OSB boards at the Top\u00adpi\u00adla Silo to cre\u00adate dif\u00adfer\u00adent struc\u00adtures, all sourced through Kier\u00adtokaari. Mate\u00adri\u00adals can also be pur\u00adchased or rent\u00aded from Kier\u00adtokaari for use in events. Per\u00adhaps we will also see ele\u00adments made from recy\u00adcled con\u00adcrete at events in the future.

One poten\u00adtial indus\u00adtri\u00adal appli\u00adca\u00adtion for con\u00adcrete ele\u00adments \u201cLego blocks\u201d could be in wind pow\u00ader and hydro\u00adgen projects.

For more infor\u00adma\u00adtion con\u00adtact:<\/strong> Jari Kan\u00adgas\u00adnie\u00admi, jari.kangasniemi@kiertokaari.fi, tel 044 7033 972<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text: Han\u00adnele Ter\u00advo <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kier\u00adtokaari is explor\u00ading var\u00adi\u00adous ways to uti\u00adlize side streams and waste mate\u00adri\u00adals. One such activ\u00adi\u00adty is the pro\u00adduc\u00adtion of con\u00adcrete ele\u00adments that has been ongo\u00ading for three years. These con\u00adgrete ele\u00adments that resem\u00adble giant Lego blocks, is not a new inven\u00adtion, but it can replace oth\u00ader con\u00adcrete struc\u00adtures, reduc\u00ading the over\u00adall need for con\u00adcrete and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1683"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1683\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oulu.com\/cleantech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}