Building firm seeks self-sufficiency through recycling

The Dartford-based company plans to mix a variety of concretes using materials recovered from its own road building activities, and should recycle about 160,000 tonnes of material each year.

Michael Conway, managing director of FM Conway, explained: “We are heavily committed to using our own recycled materials as much as possible and have so far spent over 2 million on special equipment for processing, recycling and re-using highway arisings, which provide substantial savings and improve cash flow for the group.”

The company has purchased new Reamer mobile concrete mixer vehicles and a high pressure aggregate washing plant, which will enable on-site recycling. The washing plant, from German firm Haver & Boecker, is the only one of its type in the UK, cleaning and screening up to 80 tonnes every hour of building wastes to turn it into re-usable sand and aggregate.

The investment follows the purchase two years ago of a conventional 350t/hour Austrian Remax 1318 crushing and screening plant, and last year of a German Wirtgen KMA 150 mobile Foamix plant, which has the ability to produce either cement or bitumen stabilized road base materials by blending up to 95% recycled course aggregates with fillers, modified bituminous emulsions, foamed bitumen and cements.

Mr Conway said: “Recycling will considerably reduce the amount and cost of primary aggregates we need to buy in and consequently also reduce the material which we would otherwise landfill.”

Quality
The company has found some difficulty in convincing the industry of the quality of its products, but has been working with consultants the Babtie Group and market development agency London Remade to promote its products through the Mayor’s Green Procurement Code.

Peter Harden, senior green procurement leader at London Remade, said: “We are continuing to work with the company to try to find alternative markets for some of the by-products of the aggregate washing process, further reducing the amount of construction waste going to landfill.”

Standards
The recycled aggregates industry seen new European standards introduced this month to replace existing British standards. This new system should allow for an increased use of recycled aggregates in a broader range of applications.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has now updated its aggregates recycling website, www.aggregain.org.uk, to take account of the change in standards.

Mike Watson, WRAP’s head of aggregates, said: “WRAP has made this a priority, due to the positive impact that new standards will have on recycled and secondary aggregates use.”