Can You Reuse Sandblasting Sand?

Sandblasting sand and other abrasive media are crucial to the success of your sandblasting applications and processes. They provide a reliable method for achieving your desired results and help prepare project surfaces for other processes, such as painting or powder coating.

The amount of sandblasting sand or blast media used may vary depending on the application. Large-scale projects may require a sizable amount of sand and other abrasives, leading to significant costs for some businesses. This begs the question: Can you reuse sandblasting sand?

Reusing and Recycling Abrasive Media

Abrasive blasting, especially for surface preparation, allows the reclaiming and reusing of abrasive media without impacting your surface finish quality and results, provided you have a proper process in place.

Reusing abrasive media means using it for the same purpose you’ve used it for before. So, if you’ve used your abrasives for surface preparation, using the same batch of abrasives for surface prep again counts as reusing. Recycling spent blast media, on the other hand, refers to using them for purposes other than blasting. Some of the many ways you can recycle abrasive media include:

• Fill material: Spent abrasive can be used as a raw material for manufacturing other products, such as fill materials or aggregate in asphalt and concrete production. It can also be used as roofing granules or building materials.
• Waste treatment: Some abrasives can be used in the removal of contaminants in wastewater treatment processes.
• Soil amendment: Some recycled abrasives can be used for soil amendment purposes, helping improve drainage and aeration for better plant growth.
• Pest control: Some recycled blast media deters pests, offering the agriculture industry a more eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides.
• Concrete additive: Finely graded spent abrasives can be incorporated into concrete mixes as supplementary material, especially in non-structural applications. 

It’s important to know that there is a limit to the number of times you can reuse or recycle spent media. Recycling feasibility depends on the type of materials and the specific blasting application. Some abrasives, such as silicon carbide and aluminum oxide, can be used several times. Other materials, such as copper or nickel slag, may break down too quickly, while soda blasting media can’t be reused at all.

The Importance of Recycling Sandblasting Media

Reusing and recycling sandblasting media offers plenty of significant advantages to your business.

• Improves efficiency: Reusing sandblasting media enhances efficiency in your operations by reducing downtime between blasting projects.
• Reduces costs: Reusing and recycling extend the life of your abrasive media and increase the cost-effectiveness of the material. Using less product also helps your business reduce operational and disposal costs.
• Lessens environmental impact: Recycling spent media reduces landfill waste and helps you stay aligned with your company’s sustainability goals.
• Enhanced safety: Some recycling programs also promote the use of alternative abrasive media that are less hazardous than silica sand.

If your current abrasive media of choice can’t be reused or recycled, you might be missing out on a lot of these benefits. Consider switching to a more sustainable sandblasting media that can be reused and recycled without impacting your projects.

Which Industries Can Benefit From Reusing Sandblasting Media?

The reuse and recycling of sandblasting media proves beneficial for some industries more than others. These include:

• Manufacturing: General manufacturing operations benefit from reduced production costs, such as when recycling steel shot for deburring and cleaning metal parts.
• Construction: Recycling grit reduces surface preparation costs for construction companies. It’s helpful in stripping old paint and rust before applying new paint.
• Oil and gas sector: Reclaiming and reusing abrasives helps the oil and gas sector reduce costs for corrosion control and pipeline maintenance. These abrasives are essential in removing coatings and reducing the industry’s environmental impact.
• Automotive and railway: Recycling abrasive media reduces paint stripping and surface preparation costs for the automotive and railway industries. It also helps eliminate the need for harsh chemicals and reduces waste production.
• Aviation and aerospace: The aviation and aerospace industries benefit from abrasive recycling by reducing cleaning and surface finishing costs for aircraft components.
• Infrastructure maintenance: Abrasive reuse and recycling improve the cost-effectiveness of media used for surface preparation tasks, helping ensure the efficiency of infrastructure maintenance.
• Military and defense: Recycling abrasives also helps military and defense operations reduce the costs of coating and corrosion removal while ensuring the readiness of military assets.

While it can be beneficial, it’s also worth noting that simply knowing how to recycle blast media isn’t enough. Reclaiming abrasives for reuse requires specialized equipment to prevent nonabrasive debris from entering your equipment and causing more problems than intended.

Superoxalloy as a Sandblasting Media

10X Engineered Materials’ superoxalloys offer a sustainable solution for your sandblasting needs. Available in many different grades, choose DynamiX and KinetiX for heavy-duty projects or EpiX for precision requirements like cerakote and powder coating.

Superoxalloys deliver excellent performance as a sandblasting media, providing users with superior benefits, such as:

• Reusability: Superoxalloys feature strong tempered and amorphous particles that can resist breakage at blasting pressures above 120 PSI, making them suitable for multiple reuses.
• A low-dust environment: They generate low amounts of dust, providing operators a clear view of their working space and reducing health and safety hazards.
• Cost-efficiency: The polymorphous particles have many shapes, each performing a different task in blasting jobs. Users can perform multiple blasting steps with superoxalloys, such as corrosion removal and surface preparation in one single step.

Superoxalloy abrasives are also known for their clean health and safety profile, creating a safe working environment for blasters. We are made of mineral wool insulation, and our superoxalloy abrasives are a biosoluble material not classifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Experience the Benefits of Abrasive Media Reuse With Superoxalloys

Using the right abrasive media for your sandblasting projects is essential in improving efficiency, reducing costs, and promoting workplace safety. An important factor when selecting an abrasive is reusability and recyclability. Superoxalloys from 10X Engineered Materials are highly efficient, reclaimable, and recyclable abrasives that deliver excellent sandblasting results. Check out our superoxalloy selection or contact our experts for more information.