Our goal is to enable greater circularity across the built environment using concrete and encourage the retention of concrete's value throughout all stages of its life cycle.
The approaches, priorities and solutions for achieving more circularity within the built environment have matured since our original strategy was developed. While diverting waste from landfill and recycling remain core metrics, other measures are required to move beyond this and look at the entire life cycle of concrete, from its manufacture to its use, end of life and beyond.
An increasingly circular approach to the built environment must embrace the principles of efficient resource use and long flexible lifespans. The inherent low maintenance and durable nature of a concrete structure together with its resilience to fire and the impacts of climate change, mean that it can remain in use over a long period, with the potential to be repurposed and reused multiple times during its lifetime.
What is the Circular Economy?
A circular economy can be described as “one where materials are retained in use at their highest value for as long as possible and are then reused or recycled, with little or ideally no residual waste.”
(Ref: London Plan Guidance - Circular Economy Statements).
Current action towards greater circularity
The concrete sector has been taking actions to improve circularity for decades. The circular economy hierarchy points to the primacy of extending building life spans, be that through the use of durable, resilient materials or through flexibility and retrofit. The durability of concrete, and its ability to last for 100+ years has been identified as one of the major benefits of concrete to support a more circular economy. The industry strategy includes exploring ways in which the industry may be able to support design and manufacture for longevity and adaptability. Companies are also enhancing reusability and recyclability of concrete structures and components at end of their first life through increase digitalisation, BIM objects and the principles of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DfMA) and Design for Disassembly (DfD).
Past this circular economy also includes minimising waste, increasing the use of secondary materials, and ensuring materials retain value at the end of life. Within the concrete sector work is being carried out to optimise material efficiency in production and construction, reducing waste as a priority. Industry-wide recycling programmes are also being put in place to better facilitate resource recovery at the end of life. Indeed, at a project level we are already seeing the use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste becoming more prevalent.
It isn’t just recycled aggregates being used in concrete production but trials of extracting and reusing cementitious materials are also underway. Reclaiming cementitious material from concrete can in time hopefully compliment the work being done by the cement and concrete sector to use cementitious replacements and alternative waste derived fuels in concrete production.
A Net Consumer of Waste
All this action on waste minimisation, recycling and the utilisation of secondary materials means that the concrete industry is already a net positive consumer of waste, by-products and recovered materials. The concrete and cement industry uses a large quantity of waste, by-products and recovered materials from other industries in its manufacturing processes, for example, around 28% of aggregates used in the UK are sourced from recycled materials (70Mt). The industry looks at waste and by-product of other industries as a resource to be used in manufacturing of cement and concrete. At the end of its life, concrete can be 100% recycled in many applications. However, the sector is continuing to take a holistic approach to whole life carbon and always advocates for the best application, which can include, more traditional methods of concrete recycling, for example, replacing virgin aggregates in hardstanding and backfill.
Circular Economy in Action at Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf Group’s Director of ESG Sophie Goddard and Director of Structures Jonathan Ly discuss the groups efforts to optimise the circular use of concrete.