Resource conservation

Performance indicators

• Tonnage of aggregates produced and landed: 281 million tonnes GB
• Volume from land sources: 201 million tonnes of primary aggregates GB
• Volume from marine sources: 13 million tonnes GB
• Proportion from recycled & secondary sources: 24% in 2004
• Per capita production in GB: 4.8 tonnes (EU: 6.9 tonnes)
• Water use metred/charged consumption per tonne of total production: 0.036 cubic metres
• Energy use, CO2 kg per tonne of total production: 9.98kg
• Aggregates sector share of UK carbon emissions: 0.6%

Current position

QPA members have a responsibility to maximise resource efficiency. This means that we need to get the most out of each tonne of mineral extracted whilst using the fewest possible resources in doing so. We have seen the use of secondary and recycled aggregates increase substantially in recent years, demonstrating the broad resource base of the industry and its ambition to divert previously used materials from disposal and back into use.

As indicated in the appendices to this report, the production of primary aggregates has “de-coupled” from construction output and economic growth, although there remains a relationship between these indicators. The use of total aggregates in Britain (4.8 tonnes pa per capita) is significantly lower than aggregates use in Europe (6.9 tonnes pa per capita in the EU), demonstrating the relatively high resource efficiency in the sector in Britain (the production basis of the GB aggregates statistics is a good proxy for GB consumption of aggregates.) In addition, the use of recycled and secondary materials in aggregates markets in Great Britain has increased significantly in recent years. We estimate the use of recycled and secondary materials in aggregates markets in Britain at 67 million tonnes in 2004, comprising 24 per cent of the aggregates market. This GB market share has more than doubled in the last 15 years, and the volume of recycled and secondary materials has risen consistently since the mid-1990s.

We also report here, for the first time, our energy and water data. It is clearly too early to establish a trend and we also need to improve the coverage of the data and monitor the quality of the data. In this first report, our information on energy use and carbon emissions is limited to the on-site use of energy excluding that used in the delivery of our products. Much more work is required in the area of measuring and reporting water use as we are active in many elements of the hydrological cycle and the interactions are complicated. We report the consumption of metered or paid-for water, but not the total volume of water abstracted during quarry de-watering, nor the re-use of water used in processing.

In terms of energy use, we have identified the use of electricity, natural gas, gas oil, diesel, heavy fuel oil and recovered fuel oil and converted these volumes to an overall kgs of CO2 per tonne of total QPA production. The figure of 9.98kg of CO2 includes the production of aggregates and value-added products such as asphalt and ready-mixed concrete, but does not include the use of energy in delivering our products to the market.

Aspirations

We aspire to ensure that all minerals are used appropriately and that we maximise the use of previously used materials. We would like to reduce our environmental footprint per tonne of material sold.