Maintaining the same levels of quarried sand “just not sustainable”

Some companies are clearly making progress in the production of construction products from waste, diverting valuable waste materials away from landfill, moving towards a circular economy, moving away from the consumption of finite resources – even if take-make-waste Aggregate Industries is not. 

Here are three recent examples:

SRC Aggregates have invested in 8 CDE wet processing systems across their expanding sites in the UK, diverting up to 800,000 tonnes from landfill each year.

Learn more about our C&D projects: https://t.co/h9eOgk1IEW#EngineeredForSRC #ZeroWaste #CircularEconomy pic.twitter.com/euq1rJ7IKi

— CDE Group (@cdegroup) January 26, 2021

Oliver Rees, managing director of SRC Group commented:

Every six months we're recording significant increases in the volumes of material we're moving. As we grow it's just not sustainable – both for us as a business and for the environment – to maintain the same levels of quarried sand and aggregate products. We see recycling as a significant part of our operations and it’s the right thing to be doing for the environment. We’re diverting around 800,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste from landfill each year; producing sand and gravel for reuse in construction and creating prefab concrete lego blocks for retaining structures as well as paving. 

 

.@YorkshireWater and Biffa partner to recycle and reuse over 6000 tonnes of grit #circulareconomy https://t.co/Qv5niIr1Wt

— Adam Lovell (@admlovell) March 21, 2021

Yorkshire Water’s press release states:

Biffa collects the grit from more than 600 treatment works and transports it for processing into a blended aggregate which is ready for the construction sector to use in materials such as concrete blocks

 

We're proud to have supported @LeicsCountyHall to deliver greener roads with the biggest supply to date of a new asphalt, incorporating rubber from around 3,300 waste car tyres 🙌 #Leicestershire #Asphalt Read more here 👇 https://t.co/lBD1UIuD4h pic.twitter.com/IUQaA7882b

— Tarmac (@TarmacLtd) March 24, 2021

Tarmac’s rubber-modified asphalt:

... incorporates the rubber of up to 500 waste stream tyres in every kilometre of highway surfaced, depending on the thickness of the road. This would help to reduce the up to 150,000 tonnes of rubber waste which is exported annually from the UK as fuel for cement kilns, primarily to countries in North Africa and the Indian subcontinent.