Recycled aggregates

New WRAP Guidance on the Quality Protocol requirements for the production of aggregates from inert waste:

Downloads
Information Sheet - Recycled Aggregates and the WRAP Quality Protocol	Download PDF	help
Quality Protocol for the Production of Aggregates from Inert Waste	Download PDF	help
Guidance Notes for the Producers' Compliance Checklist	Download PDF	help
Producers' Compliance Checklist	Download PDF	help
Guidance Notes to the Purchasers'/Specifiers' Compliance Checklist	Download PDF	help
Purchasers'/Specifiers' Compliance Checklist	Download PDF	help

Recycled and secondary aggregates are making an increasingly important contribution to the UK's needs.

By reducing demand on primary aggregates, they are helping the industry to become more sustainable - in other words, not using up assets today that our children may need tomorrow.

The use of recycled and secondary materials in the GB aggregates market has increased rapidly, rising from 30 million tonnes pa in 1990 to over 70 mt in 2007. Over that period the share of the aggregates market supplied from recycled and secondary sources has risen from 10% to 25%. This 25% market share is three times higher than the European average, highlighting the fact that the use of recycled and secondary materials in Britain is close to full potential.

Recycled materials

Materials suitable for use as recycled or secondary aggregates fall into two broad groups:

• Demolition and construction materials - some 60 per cent are already used as aggregates and fill
• Industrial by-products such as:
  • colliery spoil - widely used for bulk fill
  • china clay waste - used in some areas as mortar and concreting sands
  • power station ash (PFA) - used as a cement substitute within Ready Mixed concrete and for block making
  • blastfurnace slag from the iron and steel industries - used as aggregates and when ground to form GGBS as cementitious materials
  • slate

Challenges to be faced

The challenges that go with recycled and secondary aggregates are threefold:

• environmental - recovery of some wastes that have become part of a local landscape can have environmental consequences. Slate tips are an example
• technical - the wider implementation of the WRAP Quality Protocol first introduced in 2004 is increasing the credibility of recycled aggregates. However continued effort is required to instil confidence with the recycled aggregate across the full range of private and local authority customers. Prior to the introduction of the Quality Protocol, the lack of adequate technical specifications and control has previously inhibited the wider acceptability and use of recycled materials.
• economic - recycling isn't always cheaper. The recent significant increases in transport costs added to the costs of selection and processing, can make recycled aggregates prohibitively expensive

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