Monday 14 December 2020

Human-made materials now outweigh Earth's entire biomass

The dominant categories in the analysis were human-made mass in the form of buildings and infrastructure, composed of concrete, aggregates, bricks and asphalt.
It can’t go on like this. 

In other news, a symposium facilitated by CDE has examined trends and challenges in construction and demolition waste recycling. Here are two paragraphs from a longer article that can be found here
Focusing on the recycling sector, CDE’s Eunan Kelly, Head of RECO, was joined by a panel of construction, demolition and excavation waste pioneers to discuss challenges and opportunities for sustainable construction in the UK and Ireland. Commenting on the sharp rise in public awareness of sustainability issues, Scott Brewster, Managing Director at Brewster Bros. Ltd, said, “There’s never been a time in history when the general public have been more informed about the environmental crisis we face.” He referenced how self-discipline and external pressures are leading a shift in how companies in the construction industry operate, citing they have become “leaner and cleaner” for their adoption of recycled aggregates which is improving profit margins and reducing environmental impact. As well as public pressure, he believes political pressure, including ambitious zero waste and net-zero emissions targets, and fiscal pressures, such as landfill tax and the aggregates levy, will encourage more construction businesses to turn to high quality recycled sand and aggregate products. 
Viv Russell of Longcliffe Quarries and James Thorne from the Institute of Quarrying joined with CDE to discuss the hidden value in by-product stockpiles. Russell explained, “A lot of things have changed over the years. Certainly, overburden was something you would muck away… and potentially, in the life of a quarry, you would move around three or four times. “You can’t afford to transport this material anymore,” he added. Pressures and influences on the industry, such as the Aggregates Levy in 2002, meant that a solution to costly waste products had to be found. Russell continued, “Touching them [the waste products] once and turning them into a product is common sense. Now scalpings and crushed rock fines…once seen as a waste are now seen as a resource.” Commenting on the evolution in practice in the industry, Thorne said, “The drivers are changing and the industry is moving its focus to reflect that.”
Regarding the latter paragraph, those reading the extensive phasing and soil movement plans for Straitgate Farm will wonder if Aggregate Industries has seen the memo.