We now use more concrete than ever in our built environment, and that concrete is held together with rebar. When structures outlive their usefulness and are demolished, the rebar can be extracted and recycled. However, the recovered rebar needs to first be cleaned of contaminants, either through grinding or the use of chemical solvents. Only then can it be melted down in a furnace.

All of those steps take a lot of energy and resources. It would be better if the rebar could simply be reused in a new construction project, rather than melted down, but recovered rebar is often mangled into unwieldy shapes.

Brazilian company JP Botelho Machines is here to fix that problem. They develop machinery to make spent construction materials usable again, and their flagship product is this Rebar Recycler:

"We've created an alternative to using [virgin] metal, offering a new opportunity to achieve virtually the same results, but at a lower cost. Rebar recycled by our machine can be used to manufacture water tank towers, equipment towers, trusses, railings, columns, poles, and more."

At present, the company only distributes within Brazil.

Their machine reminds me of another southern hemisphere invention: This Australian fence post straightener.