Aggregates Recycling has been Boosted by Further WRAP Grants

WBB MINERALS Ltd, National Grid Transco plc and Coleman & Co Ltd are the latest beneficiaries of grants totalling £794,000, which will deliver more than one million tonnes of aggregate recycling by 2010.

Based at its former gas holdings site in Sheepscar, Leeds, National Grid Transco has already started processing materials arising from its trench excavations. WRAP’s grant of nearly £100,000 has been invested in machinery for crushing, screening and mixing 37,000 tonnes of aggregate per annum which is recycled into a foam concrete substitute and re-used to line trenches by Transco and its contractors.

WRAP is also contributing around £303,000 to a new plant being built by WBB MINERALS in Newton Abbot, Devon, which will process ball clay waste into fine aggregate. Sand excavated alongside the clay has traditionally been used to back-fill quarries but once the plant becomes operational in 2005, WBB MINERALS plans to introduce it into existing aggregates markets as well as look for value-added applications. 305,000 tonnes are expected to be produced by 2010.

Finally, WRAP has awarded around £391,000 to Coleman & Co to redevelop former foundry buildings on a six acre site in Birmingham. Work currently underway includes demolition, clean up, construction work for new storage bays and refurbishment of the foundry. Screening and washing plant has been ordered and Coleman hopes to begin processing aggregates from their excavation and demolition works later in the year, with a projected 580,000 tonnes to be recycled by 2010.

To date, fourteen contracts have been signed with companies awarded WRAP grants as part of the England aggregates competition, originally launched in 2002.

Steve Waite, WRAP’s Aggregates Capital Project Manager, said: “These three grants complete the first round of WRAP England aggregate capital grants competitions which have proved extremely successful and will, over the fourteen contracts, generate 3.2 million tonnes of aggregates recycling over the next six years.

“We are in contract negotiations for our next round of capital grant competitions for England and Scotland and look forward to announcing project details in the near future.”

Notes to editors:

1. WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) is a major UK programme established to promote resource efficiency. Its particular focus is on creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products and removing the barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.

2. A not-for-profit company in the private sector, WRAP is backed by substantial Government funding from DEFRA, DTI and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

3. WRAP has laid down targets across twelve programmes. Nine of these relate to market development, comprising six material streams (Paper, Plastics, Glass, Wood, Organics and Aggregates) and three generic areas (Procurement, Financial Mechanisms and Regional Market Development). Three new programmes relate to the wider resource efficiency remit - Collections, Communications and Awareness and Waste Minimisation.

4. The WRAP Aggregates Programme in England has been funded since 2002 by DEFRA through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund. The Aggregates Levy was set up by the Government to reduce impact on the environment from the extraction of aggregates such as crushed rock, sand and gravel used in construction. The WRAP work, which is being funded for a further three years from 2004, has the aim of reducing demand for primary aggregates by encouraging greater use of recycled and secondary aggregates. Some of the revenues from the Levy are also channelled back to communities affected by aggregates extraction through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund in England and the Sustainable Action Fund in Scotland.

5. In 2004 the Scottish Executive approved £1.4m from the Sustainable Action Fund for a second phase of the WRAP Aggregates Programme for Scotland.

6. Recycled aggregates can be produced by reprocessing materials - such as concrete, brick, asphalt, unbound sub-bases - previously used in construction. Secondary aggregates are typically by-products of other industrial processes not previously used in construction, such as china clay waste, foundry sand, glass, tyres, and plastic.

7. Last year, WRAP launched its AggRegain website (www.aggregain.org.uk) which provides information on materials, specifications, case studies and suppliers for all recycled and secondary aggregates and their applications.

8. More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk

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