Carting concrete vs crushing on site: the real cost numbers

Here is a number that should bother every civil contractor, demolition crew, and site manager in South East Queensland. Tip fees in Brisbane now exceed $80 per tonne for clean concrete. That is before you pay for trucking. Before you pay for new aggregate on the way back. Before you factor in the downtime while your excavator waits for the next float. Every truckload of concrete you send to landfill costs you on the way out AND on the way back.

The Two-Way Ripoff

Traditional concrete disposal works like this. Outbound cost: you pay a truck to haul demolition concrete to a tip or recycling facility and you pay the tip fee at the gate. Inbound cost: you pay another truck to bring clean aggregate back to site for fill, sub-base, or road base. You paid twice for material you already owned.

A 500-tonne demolition project at current SEQ rates: tip fees 500t times $80 equals $40,000, trucking out around $6,000, trucking in new aggregate around $6,000. Total: approximately $52,000.

On-Site Crushing: The Flip

The RM 70GO! 2.0 impact crusher processes up to 140 tonnes per hour and grades to 5 mm or 10 mm spec on the spot. Clean demolition concrete goes in. Road base comes out. The product stays on your site.

Same 500 tonnes, crushed on site: crushing at as low as $8 per tonne equals $4,000, fuel and mobilisation around $2,500. Total: approximately $6,500. That is $45,500 saved on a single project.

What About Mixed or Oversized Material?

This is where the two-stage setup earns its keep. The Komplet Krokodile shredder tears through oversized slabs, embedded rebar and heavily reinforced demolition concrete that most operators turn away. The RM 70GO! 2.0 follows behind, crushing the pre-processed material to spec. No double-handling. No sorting delays. One continuous process, one operator, one product stockpiled where you need it. Reinforcing steel is liberated and separated during crushing. It goes to scrap. The concrete becomes your road base.

What You Can Actually Save

The numbers shift based on tonnage, access, and material type. But the pattern holds. A 100-tonne job saves around $8,800 versus traditional disposal. A 500-tonne job saves around $45,500. A 2,000-tonne job saves around $186,000. These are based on real jobs across Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Gold Coast and Toowoomba, billed on actual production via the RM 70GO! 2.0 onboard scale.

Why Most Contractors Still Cart It Away

Habit. The old way is familiar: order a float, fill it, send it. The new way requires one phone call before the job starts. The RM 70GO! 2.0 arrives on a standard float. No oversize permits. No escorts. Setup takes about 20 minutes. Your excavator feeds it. Your crew uses the product. You skip the tip entirely.

The Environmental Side

On-site crushing is not just cheaper. It reduces truck movements to and from landfill. Your demolition concrete becomes your road base, the same material in a different form. For projects with environmental management plans, sustainability reporting, or council approval conditions, on-site crushing is a compliance win that also saves the budget.

What to Do Next

Tell us the site location, the material type, and roughly how much you have. We come back with a firm price, not a range. Our quotes start from $8 per tonne on higher-tonnage jobs. A real person responds. No call centre. No sales script.

Not sure yet whether your job is a crushing job or a carting job? Work through the on-site crushing vs carting decision guide.

The hidden costs in this article are easiest to see side by side, so run your job through the crushing cost calculator.

Call 0401 803 662 or request a quote online. Stop paying twice for your own material.