Metal consumption continues to show exponential growth.
World steel consumption is growing at a reduced rate due to recycling. China is the major producer of crude steel.
Wood consumption has continuous growth. This has led to deforestation and therefore requires sustainable management to ensure the rate of use is not exceeded by regenerative capacity.
Construction materials are a significant part of the total material resource use around the world.
Construction products have significant emissions, but much of it is ‘imported’. This means that the materials produced for the UK create emissions and therefore pollution around the world through transport, production, etc.
The impacts of production around the world can be positive or negative:
Construction aggregates make up the largest tonnage of UK construction materials, and have significant environmental impacts and opportunities, with a significant portion being from recycled or secondary sources.
Recycled aggregates - reused within the industry
Secondary aggregates - reused from another industry
There is a continuous growth of recycled and secondary materials use, especially in the UK, with around a third of aggregates in the UK from recycled sources in 2018.
Design and specification might not allow the use of recycled material.
Knowledge and Experience - construction industry is quite traditional and many in the industry like to stick to old methods.
Standards do not discriminate between natural and secondary/recycled aggregates, so need to make sure the recycled perform the exact same.
There are specifications that tell us what materials can be used for different works.
Quality controls allow us to check recycled materials and see if they can be used as normal - this increases confidence in performance, and the fully recovered product is no longer a waste. Refer to the Environment Agency Quality Protocol document for Aggregates from inert waste - which provides a flow chart for checking.
Case studies:
Planning permission is required for recycling facilities.
Investment is needed for building recycling facilities and transport from where it is.
Procurement - client and designer need good knowledge.
Cost - needs to be profitable in the long run. Fiscal policy can be used as a solution to this - e.g. Aggregate levy and Landfill tax. See Case studies in the previous section on money savings from recycling.
Supply - access is required to these materials, and if it is too far away then the transport of the materials could jeopardise the benefits.
Waste - waste hierarchy and national planning policy for waste (2014) can be used to encourage the use of recycling and reuse. Includes identifying needs and suitable sites for facilities, planning applications and monitoring and reporting.
A living plan that details the amount and type of waste that is estimated to be produced on a construction site, and how it will be reused, recycled or otherwise disposed of.
In 2008, was required on all projects over a certain cost, but this was repealed in 2013. It is still a requirement of sustainability assessment tools and some planning authorities.
Prevents illegal dumping of waste, and ensures it is handled by registered waste carriers responsibly.
What is done in an SWMP:
A circular economy is a model that aims to decouple economic growth and development from the consumption of finite resources. A circular economy is restorative, aiming to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value, at all times.
A circular economy is about optimising systems rather than components, including careful management of materials:
Reuse of products - there is more potential for reuse than is currently being done.
Reuse of buildings - don’t demolish old buildings, integrate them into designs if possible. E.g. George Green Library.
‘Product as a Service’ business model - don’t sell the product, sell the service of lending the product, then take it back to reuse parts or fix when broken. E.g. Rolls Royce doesn’t sell the engine.
Challenges of Circular Economy: