Friday, 15 March 2019

Yet another HGV crash on the B3174 Exeter Road


It was only last month that we posted Another lorry in the ditch outside Straitgate.

Today, yet another truck has ended up coming off the B3174 Exeter Road.

What could possibly go wrong with Aggregate Industries' plans for Straitgate Farm to put up to 200 HGV movements a day along this same stretch of road?



EDIT 16.3.19 According to local reports, the lorry came off the road when trying to pass another truck coming from the opposite direction. The main road into and out of Ottery was closed for some 5 hours as a result. Those familiar with this road will be aware that this type of accident happens all too frequently - many documented on this blog - a clear indication that the road is not suitable for AI’s plans.

Posted by
Labels: , , ,

The EA and ‘our precious groundwater resources’

Straitgate has occupied a disproportionate amount of the Environment Agency's time over the years – right back from when it was put forward for the Minerals Plan in 2012. At that time, the EA warned:
The importance and value of this area may be under-represented by the appraisal undertaken so far. When our groundwater team map the Source Protection Zones (SPZs) for all of the private water supplies in this area I expect that [Straitgate] will be an important part of their catchment areas.
Our policy on the protection of water resources from changes to aquifer conditions (see general comments below) will govern our response to this and every other site. The number of private water supplies suggests to me that this would be a difficult site to take forward. Similarly, if this area is shown to be a significant part of the catchment for the water features near Cadhay, its deliverability as a viable site would seem unlikely.
Cadhay's water features? Here's a photo of one of the mediaeval fishponds, integral to the setting of the Grade I Tudor manor house:



What does the EA mean when it talks about SPZs? Here's the SPZ that the EA put in place at Straitgate in 2013 – across the area that AI wants to quarry – in an effort to protect Cadhay's water supplies:

Environment Agency

But it's not just Cadhay that has an SPZ. Many private water supplies rely on the groundwater at Straitgate for drinking water. As The Environment Agency’s approach to groundwater protection states, "all groundwater abstractions intended for human consumption or food production purposes have a default SPZ1".

For those unclear of the EA's responsibilities, the above document explains:
We are the Environment Agency. We protect and improve the environment and make it a better place for people and wildlife.
We operate at the place where environmental change has its greatest impact on people’s lives. We reduce the risks to people and properties from flooding; make sure there is enough water for people and wildlife; protect and improve air, land and water quality and apply the environmental standards within which industry can operate.
Acting to reduce climate change and helping people and wildlife adapt to its consequences are at the heart of all that we do.
We cannot do this alone. We work closely with a wide range of partners including government, business, local authorities, other agencies, civil society groups and the communities we serve.
The EA also tweets about "our precious groundwater resources". Here's a few relevant to Straitgate:



Posted by
Labels: , , ,

Mining’s human cost

"The Brumadinho tailings dam catastrophe is an unwelcome reminder of the industry’s atrocious safety record", according to The FT’s Investors Chronicle article Vale disaster sends shockwaves beyond Brazil. We’ve already posted about this disaster here and here. Now, following pressure from prosecutors, Vale's CEO and other executives have resigned. As the BBC reports in the saddening article Looking for bodies, looking for answers:
A month on from the collapse, 171 people have been confirmed dead, but the recovery operation continues to search for the bodies of another 141 people - all reported missing by their families.
It’s a race against time. Very soon the bodies will begin to decompose fully, and the rescue dogs will be less effective.
As the IC points out:
History, Karl Marx once wrote, repeats itself "first as tragedy, the second time as farce". Perusing the global mining industry’s expressions of horror at last month’s Brumadinho tailings dam collapse, it is hard not to recall the line. Describing a disaster likely to have killed more than 300 people as “tragic” might carry more weight had the incident not arrived just 38 months after another of Vale’s Brazilian iron ore operations failed, again at huge human and environmental cost.
…. efforts to quantify tailings dam failures around the world appear to suggest that the deadliness, magnitude and even frequency of such disasters are getting worse
The magazine also points to worldminetailingsfailures.org, which supports research in tailing dam failures and has compiled data on such disasters over the last hundred years:
Our banner is an ever-looping image of the actual failure by static liquefaction of Vale’s Dam I at the [Brumadinho] Córrego do Feijão mine.... which ranks as the 6th worst in recorded history, based on data available as of February 6, 2019.
The data suggests a worsening trend. In fact:
Without major changes to law and regulation, and to industry practices, and without new technology that substantially reduces risk and increases loss control, our current prediction is for 19 Very Serious Failures between 2018 and 2027.
However, deaths from tailing dam collapses is just the tip of the iceberg of mining’s human cost. The BBC article The dangers of mining around the world reports:
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), while mining employs around 1% of the global labour force, it generates 8% of fatal accidents.
Although there are no accurate figures, estimates suggest [mining] accidents kill about 12,000 people a year.
Mining unions say many disasters go unreported:
It is a very dark industry
Posted by
Labels: ,

Monday, 11 March 2019

Concrete: ‘the most destructive material on Earth’

LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – is the largest cement producer in the world.


Aggregate Industries is now a cement producer in its own right too, and loves the sight of concrete:









The problem for AI, and the rest of us, is that all this concrete comes at a price – an environmental price. The Guardian recently ran a series of articles – Guardian Concrete Week – warning us of "the shocking impact of concrete on the modern world":



Given that the production of every tonne of cement (a key component of concrete) releases a tonne of CO2, it's hardly surprising that:
Nearly 6% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 8% of the world’s, are now sourced from cement production.

Industry leaders are now embarrassed, aware that they are in danger of being financially penalised and tarred as climate laggards who refuse to change in the face of the climate emergency. They well know that not only is it quite possible to build most structures safely without cement, but their own research has shown that green, cement-like products using recycled byproducts which are just as strong can be made from other industries, such as steel slag, fly ash from coal-fired facilities or some types of clay. Instead they trust that nascent technologies like carbon capture and storage which could allow emissions to be buried will come on stream, and that more efficient plant will reduce cement emissions by as much as 20-25%...
But technological change will not alone drive cement emissions down fast enough. What is needed to speed up cuts is a global cement, or concrete tax. Only if the whole industry is forced to pay far more for the emissions of its product will companies shift to cleaner practices.
Apart from a cement or concrete tax, another article suggests what else can be done to reduce the destructive impact of concrete. Fortunately, new materials are also emerging – including cross-laminated timber to construct 'plyscrapers':
This material is lightweight but as strong as concrete and steel, and construction experts say it can be more versatile and faster to work with than concrete and steel – and even, it seems, quieter.

This week, a group of institutional investors coordinated by ShareAction, with over $1tn of assets under management, sent letters to company CEOs, including two large concrete firms, to ask them to set emissions targets in line with the Paris climate agreement.
Instead of just asking for disclosure of climate risks, these investors are asking for hard targets, and to sign up to a number of initiatives related to renewable electricity, energy productivity and electric vehicles.
The cement firms contacted include... LafargeHolcim (Switzerland).
According to ShareAction:
Cement has been on our radar for a while now. It was a priority sector agreed with the investor group because it is one of the most carbon-intensive industries.
The most severe, but least understood, impact of concrete is that it destroys natural infrastructure without replacing the ecological functions that humanity depends on for fertilisation, pollination, flood control, oxygen production and water purification.
As Jonathan Watts writes, our concrete slabs “entomb vast tracts of fertile soil, constipate rivers, choke habitats and – acting as a rock-hard second skin – desensitise us from what is happening outside our urban fortresses”.

He makes a powerful case for how concrete transforms a culture (a civilisation intertwined with nature) into an economy (a production unit obsessed by GDP statistics, which politicians can inflate for personal gain … simply by pouring more concrete).
Concrete-hungry HS2 and Hinckley are two obvious examples in the UK.

What does LafargeHolcim say? According to the company's US CEO:
As this industry is responsible for having such a large impact on our world, LafargeHolcim is always focused on making sure that the products and services that we provide are sustainable for the future.
We must transform the way we operate to become more innovative and mindful of the use of resources and our impact on the environment.
If the unsustainable 2.5 million mile haulage plan for Straitgate is an example of LafargeHolcim transforming the way we operate – we're all in trouble.
Posted by
Labels: , ,

Friday, 8 March 2019

Straitgate determination date extended for 7th time


We asked:
What on earth can be causing the company so many problems?
AI's application has now been lifeless for 18 months. It’s about time AI put up or shut up.
So, what do we get? More delay. More can kicking.

Devon County Council has agreed yet another extension with Aggregate Industries for the period for determination of its Straitgate application - the seventh - this time from 31 March to 28 June 2019.

What has been achieved since the last extension, or the one before, or before that?

Who knows? DCC is still awaiting information it requested from AI some 18 months ago.

And so the farce goes on.
Posted by
Labels: ,

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Some of AI’s drivers clearly have an issue with road safety laws

At Aggregate Industries, for example, we operate an incredibly robust approach to the enrolment of our 1,000-plus franchisee drivers… blah blah blah

Given that HGVs in the wrong hands, or hands containing mobile devices, are lethal weapons – as in the case of the Newbury A34 tragedy in 2016 – perhaps the company should look closer to home first. The RAC warns us that:
Using a handheld mobile phone while behind the wheel of a car is a controversial and incredibly dangerous issue…
The law is clear on when you can use a hand-held device behind the wheel. It is only legal if you are safely parked – and this does not include waiting in traffic or when sat at the traffic lights.
Contrary to what many drivers seem to think, the law still applies when your vehicle is stopped at lights or in a traffic queue. If your engine is running, your phone should be nowhere near your hands.
The AI driver below obviously thinks he’s above the law. Fortunately, however, he was caught on camera, and the film has been shared widely on social media:


But it’s not an isolated incident – despite the incredibly robust approach to enrolment AI has for its drivers. We have previously posted examples; here are a few more:








It’s all very concerning.

So when the MPA – the trade association that represents AI and others – talks about a new vision, a vision supposedly aimed at:
Driving Change, Raising Standards and Improving Perceptions
perhaps that vision needs to be repurposed:
Driving must Change, to Raise Standards and Improve Perceptions
Posted by
Labels: , ,

East Devon roads are most dangerous in county

In 2017, there were 31 deaths and 384 serious injuries from collisions in the county of Devon... In 2013, the figures were 16 and 293 respectively.
Of those [in 2017], 84 were in East Devon, 46 in Exeter, 31 in Mid Devon, 58 in North Devon, 45 in the South Hams, 64 in Teignbridge, 32 in Torridge and 55 in West Devon.
Over the last five years, East Devon has seen the most KSI [killed or serious injured] collisions with 351, while Torridge has seen the least, with 149.
Devon's roads are not to blame, according to Cllr Jerry Brook:
No road is unsafe, just the people that are on it, and it is not the roads that are unsafe but the way that people drive. Most of us have to put up with the idiots that misbehave on the roads.
Nevertheless, in 2017 we posted Why are Devon’s highways so dangerous? We pointed to the Road Safety Foundation ranking all 78 counties by road safety improvement since 2010:


We posted:
Why is Devon doing so poorly?
Perhaps DCC’s relaxed attitude to Aggregate Industries’ Straitgate Farm plans to put up to 200 HGVs a day onto a dangerous B road, for an onward 46-mile round trip, gives you a clue?
Or perhaps, by Cllr Brook's reasoning, Devon just has more idiots on the road.
Posted by
Labels: , ,

Friday, 1 March 2019

If this is how much politicians care about climate change...



If you look at the trends, we are not heading for that apocalyptic 2 degree rise, we are heading something that looks more like 3 degrees, the consequences of which we cannot possibly estimate.
... the idea of children missing a few hours of geometry or PE to wake our political system up is somehow the wrong thing to do just seems ... absurd.
Posted by
Labels:

LAA

Two weeks ago, we posted about Local Aggregate Assessments. The LAA is a requirement of the NPPF. We pointed out that DCC’s last LAA was for the period to 31 December 2016, published July 2017.
The LAA will continue to be published annually to inform development and monitoring of Minerals/Local Plans, including recent sales and revisions to levels of reserves and the length of landbanks.
Readers with an interest in such matters will no doubt be relieved to learn that DCC has just published its 7th Devon Local Aggregate Assessment for the period to 31 December 2017.
Posted by
Labels: ,

Tuesday, 26 February 2019

UK experiences hottest winter day ever

Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, warns:


Choosing to transport 14 million tonnes each year by rail or ship in an effort to tackle climate change would of course be something to applaud, until you realise that 10 million of those tonnes are produced at the Glensanda super quarry – and can ONLY be removed by ship, because there is no land access.
Posted by
Labels: , ,

Greystone inquiry

We’ve posted about Aggregate Industries’ Greystone Quarry near Launceston in Cornwall before.

In the company’s planning application for Straitgate Farm, AI claimed that supplying high PSV material from Straitgate would involve less transportation than its alternative high PSV source at Greystone. The claim was wrong, and we showed that each load of high PSV material from Straitgate would entail 417 miles of transportation for production alone – before any onward delivery – leading to overall haulage distances over three times the return-trip distance of material from Greystone.

At the end of 2016, AI lodged an application to extend Greystone. As we posted in December 2017 – and despite objections, including from DCC:
Aggregate Industries couldn’t believe its luck, no doubt, when its planning application for a 10 million tonne quarry extension within the Tamar Valley AONB was approved by Cornwall Council in September. The application PA16/10746 had been validated the previous November. The approval extends the life of Greystone Quarry near Launceston to 2066 and requires the stopping up of a public highway.
In relation to that stopping up of a public highway, BBC Devon & Cornwall reminds us that the public inquiry starts today:

Posted by
Labels:

Monday, 25 February 2019

DCC declares ‘climate emergency’ but rejects 2030 target

Time is running out to control greenhouse gas emissions and halt runaway climate change:
The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.
The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)... say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C.
The IPCC's Dr Debra Roberts warned:
It’s a line in the sand and what it says to our species is that this is the moment and we must act now. This is the largest clarion bell from the science community and I hope it mobilises people and dents the mood of complacency.
However, not everyone appreciates the urgency of our existential crisis. Last week, Devon County Council’s Full Council agreed to declare a "climate emergency" and to become carbon neutral by 2050 – but despite pleas from campaigners, Conservative councillors refused to back an amendment bringing this target forward to 2030, a target adopted by a number of other councils including Cornwall, where:
... a cross-party amendment was accepted which went even further than the original motion.
If we are to avoid the worst-case scenarios, then the social change required will be deep. Radical social change is uncomfortable and difficult – but I believe that as local representatives of our communities we have a responsibility to take leadership. Cornwall Council has shown that leadership today.
In Devon, it was a different story. Whilst various councillors spoke in favour of the 2030 amendment:
We need to recognise the issues with climate change and that we are heading towards extinction, and this is a call to action on the scale of a declaration of war. After 2030 it may be too late.
We have to act now as there is no Planet B. We have already caused irrecoverable climate change and we have to declare a climate emergency.
The crisis of climate change is the greatest threat facing mankind today, and we should have climate change impacts at the bottom of every report that comes before us.
This is an issue where there are really strict deadlines. Without the deadline, the cabinet motion simply isn’t that meaningful.
Cllr John Hart, Leader of the Council, on the other hand argued:
We are doing a lot on climate change and we are doing the right things, but we are being told that by 2030 we cannot make zero carbon. We have put together a recommendation that says what we can do and I can work with that.
I cannot work with an arbitrary figure that may or may not be possible and everyone professionally tells me that it cannot be done and we cannot be carbon neutral by 2030.





When it comes to minerals – and on that subject of "We are doing a lot on climate change" – DCC’s Minerals Plan does indeed recognise that:
One of the biggest challenges facing Devon’s communities and environment, together with the wider world, is climate change driven by global warming. 3.4.1
and is indeed proud to proclaim:
Mitigation of and adaptation to climate change is a key consideration and statutory duty for the Devon Minerals Plan, and will be a cross-cutting theme for the Strategy. 2.2.4
How might that be achieved? "Objective 1: Spatial Strategy" is clear:
Within geological constraints, secure a spatial pattern of mineral development that delivers the essential resources to markets within and outside Devon while minimising transportation by road and generation of greenhouse gases... 3.2
How might that relate to Straitgate Farm, a Preferred Area for sand and gravel extraction?
Maintaining the production of sand and gravel from the southern and northern parts of the Pebble Beds is also important in minimising transportation distances to the main markets in Devon and adjoining areas in accordance with Objective 1 and Policy M1. 5.4.8
Which is where everything becomes unstuck. Because by DCC continuing to entertain AI’s planning application for Straitgate – to dig up material from the southern part of the Pebble Beds only to be processed in the northern part of the Pebble Beds necessitating a 2.5 million mile haulage plan – it undoes any illusion of acting on climate change. The Minerals Plan was adopted in 2017. Straitgate will be the first application for a new greenfield quarry site in Devon to be determined against that Plan.

Posted by
Labels: , ,

HGVs on rural roads

HGVs have been in the news recently for all sorts of reasons.

Locally, on the road outside Straitgate Farm, we’ve had this:


Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, the Transport Minister was asked about what steps are being taken to reduce HGV traffic on rural roads:
Transport Minister Jesse Norman says this is a "very important issue" and has "all kinds of negative effects". He says that "local authorities are best placed" to try and prohibit the use of HGVs on rural roads.
But it's not just local authorities. Recently the Secretary of State for Communities refused Cuadrilla’s fracking application at Roseacre Wood in Lancashire, due to the road safety issues posed by HGVs using narrow country lanes used by cyclists, walkers and horse riders:
The proposed development would have a serious and very significant adverse impact on the safety of people using the public highway.
Aggregate Industries' planning application for Straitgate Farm would of course put many more HGVs – up to 200 a day – on a narrow country lane used by cyclists, walkers and horse riders. AI’s application fails to address these concerns, despite this recent press release from the company which points to the dangers posed by the rapidly increasing number of HGVs on our roads:
This has brought fresh safety concerns, as more vehicles on the roads and more traffic means increased risk – with dangerous lorry driving often at the heart of the highly-publicised road safety issue. Reports estimate that almost a quarter of injuries caused by crashes with HGVs are fatal or serious, compared to a one in eight (13%) car crash average, and that one in three (34%) drivers have had a crash or near miss with a lorry.
What’s AI doing about this – apart from its plans for up to 200 HGVs a day on a rural lane in Devon?
At Aggregate Industries, for example, we operate an incredibly robust approach to the enrolment of our 1,000-plus franchisee drivers, coupled with a holistic maintenance programme.
Sounds good. But it doesn't stop there:
We also use a state-of-the-art telematics system to monitor the driving behaviour and styles of our franchisee hauliers on a daily basis – picking up everything from mileage, speed and fuel consumption.
Brilliant. Does it work? Not according to this:


Other companies are taking a different tack. CEMEX for example, is not only putting its faith in signage of the bright yellow variety – see below – but is also employing more widescreen Econic trucks with improved visibility of vulnerable road users. Others are also making this move – investing in trucks "less likely to mow down cyclists".

... if you Google "econic truck" AND "aggregate industries" you’ll be disappointed. AI use contract hauliers. It’s unclear what new measures, if any, are being stipulated by Aggregate Industries to make their contractors' HGVs safer for vulnerable road users.

Posted by
Labels: , ,

Monday, 18 February 2019

Who’d have thought it? Decision on Straitgate application delayed again


It will hardly come as a surprise to regular readers to learn that Aggregate Industries has failed to meet the extended determination date agreed by the company with DCC last year.

More than seven years have now passed since AI’s consultants first started crawling all over Straitgate Farm in preparation for plans to quarry the site.

Almost four years have passed since AI’s initial planning application.

The determination date for the resubmitted application has been extended six times.

And yet, AI is plainly still having difficulty putting together the documentation requested by DCC some 18 months ago – in answer to a number of fundamental questions.

In November, it was agreed by DCC and AI to extend the determination date to 31 March 2019. This date – like many before – has now been missed, given that the submission of any further information would require 30 days of public consultation before the next DMC meeting of 20 March.

What are we to make of AI’s lack of enthusiasm to submit more information? What on earth can be causing the company so many problems?

Is it the cattle crossing issues – first raised almost 2 years ago?

Is it the rich assortment of hydrogeological issues – including the failure of AI’s groundwater model?

Devon County Council have written to Aggregate Industries requesting them to submit revised plans showing the extent of the working area, taking into account the elevated groundwater levels recorded in March and April 2018, prior to determining the planning application.
Is it the road junction issues – and damage to third party property?

Is it the involvement of an increasing numbers of lawyers – this being just the latest – raising substantive issues against AI’s plans?

Or is it the dawning realisation that Straitgate Farm – with its ever-decreasing level of sand and gravel resource – sits an uneconomic, unsustainable, climate-damaging 23 miles away from AI’s newly-erected processing plant in Mid Devon – where the company already has enough of the same material to last it to 2050 and beyond?

Clearly, there are problems. Otherwise AI would be looking to tear up the ancient hedgerows and farmland by now – not seeking a 7th extension to the determination date.

Locals have now been blighted by the threat of this development for more than seven years – remember the hundreds of people who piled into West Hill Village Hall in 2012 to bend the ear of DCC’s Minerals Officer? Some people have been blighted by the threat of a quarry at Straitgate for longer than that.

AI’s application has now been lifeless for 18 months. It’s about time AI put up or shut up.
Posted by
Labels: ,

Another lorry in the ditch outside Straitgate

Yet more evidence today – if any more were needed after the accidents here, here, here and here – that this dangerous stretch of the B3174 Exeter Road is not suitable for Aggregate Industries' plans for up to 200 HGV movements a day.

Posted by
Labels: , ,

Friday, 15 February 2019

Schoolchildren across the world call for climate action

Today, thousands of schoolchildren across the UK – including from Devon – are due to strike, in a call for action on climate change. It follows similar protests across the World. More than 200 academics back the UK schools' climate change strikes; the National Association of Head Teachers says the action "needs to be applauded."
The number of those taking part in Friday’s strike is growing rapidly, amid mounting evidence of the scale and impact of the climate emergency. There are more than 50 confirmed events from Fort William to Hastings, with more added each day.
The UK day of action is part of a movement that started in August when Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old schoolgirl, held a solo protest outside Sweden’s parliament. Globally, up to 70,000 schoolchildren each week are taking part in 270 towns and cities.
Individual demonstrations have already been held in the UK, but Friday’s coordinated day of action is expected to see the biggest protests by students and young people in the UK since the student strikes of 2010 over tuition fees.




There is growing alarm across the world over climate change:


It’s not hard to see why – with headlines such as "A third of Himalayan ice cap doomed":
At least a third of the huge ice fields in Asia’s towering mountain chain are doomed to melt due to climate change, according to a landmark report, with serious consequences for almost 2 billion people.
Even if carbon emissions are dramatically and rapidly cut and succeed in limiting global warming to 1.5C, 36% of the glaciers along in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range will have gone by 2100. If emissions are not cut, the loss soars to two-thirds, the report found.
The glaciers are a critical water store for the 250 million people who live in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya (HKH) region, and 1.65 billion people rely on the great rivers that flow from the peaks into India, Pakistan, China and other nations.
"This is the climate crisis you haven’t heard of," said Philippus Wester of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (Icimod), who led the report. "In the best of possible worlds, if we get really ambitious [in tackling climate change], even then we will lose one-third of the glaciers and be in trouble. That for us was the shocking finding."
On 21 February, there will be another demonstration outside DCC’s County Hall in Exeter when a Climate Emergency motion – previously posted about here – is debated by the Full Council. DCC’s Cabinet recommended that Devon should become carbon neutral by 2050; a similar motion in Cornwall was recently passed with 2030 as the target. The IPCC warns we have just 12 years left to take action.
Posted by
Labels: ,

Companies leading on climate change ‘also outperform on stock market’

The World’s 'top green businesses' have been revealed – in the CDP A List:
CDP names over 150 corporates recognised as pioneers for action on climate change, water and deforestation.
According to this article:
The best performing companies based on a range of climate change measures are also outperforming the stock market, according to research by CDP, formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project.
CDP ranked more than 6,800 companies, grading them from A to D-, with just 2 per cent making the A list. The data was released to coincide with the World Economic Forum summit, which is taking place in Davos, Switzerland this week.
Organisations were judged on the actions they have taken across three categories: climate change, water security and forests.
HeidelbergCement has been awarded ‘A-‘ in the climate change category of CDP’s Climate A List. It also received the same score in the water security category. The result marked it as the highest-scoring cement company on the list beating other major international producers such as LafargeHolcim, Cemex and CRH. Notably, these other cement companies each received ‘F’ for water security due to a lack of sufficient information available.
LafargeHolcim is the parent company of Aggregate Industries. Perhaps confirming CDP's findings:
the company is the least profitable among rivals in the aggregates market.

Posted by
Labels:

Construction, demolition & excavation waste – largest waste stream in UK economy

The Mineral Products Association is the trade association representing Aggregate Industries et al. A recent press release from the MPA tells us that "The need for resources and waste materials to be used more efficiently and effectively has never been so strong."

It also tells us that 120 million tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation waste is created each year – which represents the largest waste stream in the UK economy. The MPA has provided an infographic – shown below – of where it thinks all that waste is going.

The MPA talks about an "industry success story"; that 51 million tonnes is being recycled as aggregate each year, so that "30% of all aggregate demand [is] now supplied from non-primary sources". As an example, only last month Scott Bros. invested £1m in an 'Urban Quarry' wash plant in Teeside:
The Teesside company’s state-of-the-art wash plant takes waste material and converts it into high quality sand and aggregate for use in the building and construction industry.
It is capable of processing between 50 and 70 tonnes of waste per hour to produce both coarse and fine sand, together with three grades of aggregate.
The recycled products are not only cost-effective for customers but reduce the amount of environmental damage involved in the quarrying and production of primary materials.
Currently some 20 percent of the wash plant’s output – a clay-based substance produced during the filtration process – cannot be recycled.
However, Scott Bros. is working in conjunction with academics at Teesside University’s School of Science, Engineering and Design, to find a practical use for the residue.
One possible use being explored is that the material could be incorporated into the brick manufacturing process.
The MPA also claims:
The restoration and recycling of land, by utilising suitable materials such as Excavation Waste (EW) post-extraction, is another activity contributing to the circularity and sustainability of the construction industry and supply chain.
and that:
The assumption that vast quantities of waste are not used beneficially is misleading, and underestimates the high degree of resource recovery taking place in the UK.
However, and somewhat less of a success story, the MPA also calculates that 26 million tonnes of construction waste continues to be dumped in landfills each year.

Posted by
Labels: , ,

Aggregate producers persuade HM Treasury to review Aggregates Levy


The British Aggregates Association has been involved in a long-running dispute with the UK government over the Aggregates Levy. This litigation has now been dropped after the government promised a review. Treasury minister Robert Jenrick said:
Longstanding litigation on the aggregates levy has now been concluded, with the litigation against the government and the European Commission...
The aggregates levy has been largely unchanged since its introduction in 2002. The government will now conduct a comprehensive review of the levy over the next year, working closely with the Scottish government, and consulting the Welsh government and Northern Ireland executive throughout. The review will be comprehensive, looking at the latest evidence about the objectives of the levy, its effectiveness in meeting those objectives, and the design of the levy, including the impact of devolution.
Posted by
Labels:

LAAs

In line with NPPF requirements, DCC is tasked with producing annual Local Aggregate Assessments – which include information on sand and gravel production and reserve levels.

Whilst the Devon Minerals Plan was being prepared and examined, the LAA was regularly produced – even multiple versions in some years.

For anyone wondering, the last time the council reported on the local mineral scene was "for the period to 31 December 2016." The Minerals Plan was adopted in February 2017.

At the end of 2017, Devon's sand and gravel reserves stood at 6.23 million tonnes.
Posted by
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)