How to Recycle Brick Pavers

Separate useful bricks from pavers beyond their useful purpose. Brush debris from pavers with minimal chips and cracks with your hands or a stiff-bristled brush. Gather crumbling pavers into a bucket.

Mix crushed pavers into the soil near a gutter downspout to reduce erosion. Slope the soil away from the house to direct the water flow, with the high spot nearest to the home's foundation. Dig or push the soil with a shovel, a garden hoe or your hands and feet. Add small stones and crumbling pavers to low spots where water pools near the downspout. The clay and stone catches soil normally carried away in the runoff.

Create a base for a potted plant. Arrange one to four orphaned pavers in a flower garden or create a pedestal with two layers of brick. The plant roots will not migrate from the drainage holes into the soil.

Extend a walkway using patio deconstruction leftovers. According This Old House, many modular clay bricks "measure 8 inches long, 4 inches wide, and 1½ inches thick, but actual dimensions can vary by as much as half an inch." Figure that each five salvaged bricks adds approximately 1 square foot of patio or walkway. Pour a graded base of stones in the extension's footprint, then add sand for stability. Even out the soil with a hoe and shovel. For tiny projects, use surrounding soil. Arrange the leftover bricks according to your desired pattern.

Donate quantities of clean bricks to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore home store. Shoppers purchase construction materials and housewares at prices reflecting a 30 to 70 percent discount in comparison to retail prices. All proceeds funnel into building Habitat homes.

Contact your local landfill or masonry stone yard. Some landfills crush brick for road fill or return the raw material to manufacturing plants. Facilities may assess a dump fee. For example, the McKinney Texas Environmental Recycling plant charges $100 per truck load. Masonry companies sometimes accept clean brick and also convert crushed brick to fill. They may pay a fee for a quantity of quality materials.