Industry Exposes More CPRE Scaremongering About Quarrying
Britain’s
quarry operators today (26 January) hit back at “another
tired scare story” from the CPRE claiming that the industry
is about to excavate an area the size of Birmingham.
“ Yet
again the CPRE has resorted to using the same misleading and inaccurate
miscalculations about future aggregates demand that it trots out
every few years,” said Simon van der Byl, director general
of the Quarry Products Association.
“ In
the past, it has run campaigns based upon holes the size of Manchester,
Berkshire, Oxfordshire and the Isle of Wight and on every occasion
these claims have proved to have been grossly superficial and
exaggerated.”
He added:
“As CPRE has chosen to focus on Birmingham, perhaps it would
like to comment on the benefit that city gets from aggregates
products sourced from local quarries. Take for example the new
Birmingham Northern Relief Road, the improvements to the West
Coast Mainline and the proposed expansion of the Heartlands Hospital
which treats half a million patients every year. “
Dealing with
specific points made in the CPRE’s statement, Mr van der
Byl pointed out the following:
| CLAIM: |
The industry will create holes equivalent
to an area the size of Birmingham. |
| REALITY: |
The CPRE calculation is absurd .The surface
area involved in future quarrying will be a fraction this
size because the majority of aggregates will come not from
new quarries but from existing ones. To compound this error,
CPRE bases its calculations on new quarries averaging five
metres deep, but two thirds of aggregates come from rock quarries
that can be well over ten times this depth, further reducing
land use. In addition, any new extraction will take place
gradually and be subject to progressive restoration. |
| CLAIM: |
The Government must plan to reduce the
demand for aggregates. |
| REALITY: |
The Government’s forecasts actually
predict a flat level of future demand for quarried aggregates,
not the increasing demand implied by the CPRE. Aggregate demand
in Britain is 30 per cent down on 10 years ago, aggregates
are used 30% more efficiently than a decade ago, and use per
person is 40 per cent lower than the European average. |
| CLAIM: |
We aren’t using enough recycled materials. |
| REALITY: |
In fact, the Government forecasts that
most future growth in the aggregates market will be from recycled
sources. The market share of recycled materials has more than
doubled from 10 per cent in 1989 to 24 per cent in 2003. The
rate of recycling in Britain is already three times higher
than the European average, and the aggregates sector is a
real recycling success story. |
| CLAIM: |
Future demand would require the equivalent
of 125 million trucks travelling around the country. |
| REALITY: |
The industry uses a fleet of between 12
and 15,000 trucks and that is unlikely to change significantly
over the next ten years. We move up to 30 million tonnes of
material each year by rail and water. |
| CLAIM: |
The quarrying industry is destroying countryside. |
| REALITY: |
In addition to its latest exaggerated claim
of future land use, the CPRE has ignored the industry’s
widely praised land restoration programme and the huge benefits
many of its sites are creating for nature and for local communities.
Some 700 of the UK’s important conservation sites (SSSI’s)
were created by quarrying and many are still managed by quarrying
companies. |
Mr van der
Byl added: “It is typical of CPRE’s distorted vision
that it attacks quarries as ‘holes’. Perhaps if its
superficial research dug a little deeper, it would see that quarries
mean homes, schools, hospitals and much more and it would recognise
that Britain’s quarrying companies have some of the best
environmental records in the world.
The industry
works closely with a range of environmental and conservation organizations
and values these relationships, so it is a matter of regret that
the CPRE is again choosing to campaign on the basis of inaccuracies
and scaremongering. We look forward to a more rational and constructive
approach from them in the future.”
Notes to editors
| 1. |
The Quarry
Products Association is the principal trade association representing
the UK aggregates industry. In England our members produce
over 90% of aggregates extracted - sand and gravel and crushed
rock as well as other non aggregate minerals such as silica
sand, agricultural and industrial lime including limestone,
chalk, clay and shale for cement. |
| 2. |
Market Shares of Primary & Recycled/Secondary Aggregates
| Comparison
with Primary Aggregates Supply million tonnes
pa. (GB) |
| Aggregates
Source |
1989 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003* |
%
Change |
| Primary |
300 |
222 |
214 |
205 |
-32% |
| Recycled/Secondary |
32 |
60 |
62 |
65 |
+103% |
| Total |
332 |
282 |
276 |
270 |
-19% |
Recycled/Secondary
Market share |
9.6% |
21.3% |
22.5% |
24.1% |
|
|
* QPA estimate for 2003.
The
supply of these recycled materials is mature and well established.
The results of ODPM research carried out in 2001, indicates
that the potential additional supply from these sources
is relatively restricted. The August 2002 ODPM consultation,
(Consultation Paper – Draft National and Regional
Guidelines for Aggregates Provision in England 2001 –
2016 (Paragraph A15)) includes the following assessment:
“
The available evidence suggests that there has been a rapid
increase in the use of C and D waste (construction and demolition
waste) since 1990. This means that most of the C and D waste
that is easy to recycle is now being recycled and therefore
it is likely to become progressively more difficult to increase
the use of C and D waste further. While there is potential
for increased supply from some mineral wastes, a number
of other sources of alternatives to primary aggregates are
decreasing as a result of industrial changes.” |
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