Materials efficiency and recycling

We continue to make progress against all our key metrics. The amount of crushed road waste or recycled asphalt planings (RAP) used in new asphalt mixes rose again. The average RAP content increased to 14 per cent in 2017 and continues to rise, led by our subsidiary MQP which has one of the best RAP useage rates in the industry at 23 per cent.

Mixing RAP into asphalt makes sense for customers, the environment and the business. It means less virgin aggregate and bitumen are needed, and waste to landfill is reduced, though there is a trade-off between the use of more recycled asphalt and energy consumption. The UK specification allows up to 50 per cent RAP in various asphalt products and we continue to develop new techniques to increase the content in our mixes.

The cement replacement Regen is manufactured from granulated blast furnace slag, a by-product of the steel industry. It reduces embodied CO₂ in concrete and provides a number of other benefits. Its use in ready-mixed concrete means we have one of the highest cement replacement rates in the UK market. We are working towards our target of 45 per cent cement replacement by 2020 and are developing mixes with higher Regen content. We are also communicating the CO₂ benefits of these products to customers and specifiers through a national programme of CPD courses on the ‘Benefits of cement substitutes’.

Recycled and secondary materials

	2010 (baseline)	2015	2016	2017	Definition
By-products or waste used as raw material in cement	8.0%	11.6%	12.2%	11.5%	Alternative materials as a % of total cement production
Aggregates recycled and sold	1.77%	1.50%	0.19%	0.01%	% of total sales
Recycled materials in asphalt (Hanson plants)	2.9%	8.6%	11.1%	10.5%	% of recycled asphalt planings and foundry sand used in asphalt
Recycled materials in asphalt (MQP plants)		26.6%	19.3%	22.9%	% of recycled asphalt planings and foundry sand used in asphalt
Recycled materials in concrete	0.08%	0.06%	0.22%	0.11%	% of recycled aggregate used in ready-mixed concrete
Sites which recover surplus concrete	65%	97%	98%	100%	Sites recovering over 50% of process waste (inc third party recycling)
Cement replacements in concrete (Regen, PFA)	38.4%	37.0%	38.9%	38.3%	% of cement substitutes in ready-mixed concrete

Targets: Increase cement replacements in concrete to 45 per cent; recycled aggregate in asphalt (excluding filler dust) to 10 per cent and concrete plants recycling surplus concrete to 95 per cent – all by 2020.