Photo by Ryde Reclamation

With a tsunami of new policy coming towards the construction and demolition industry in the near future, in the shape of Net Zero CO2 by 2050, The governments Climate Change Committees (CCC) recommendation’s, the Circular Economy etc… all trying to mitigate the effects of Global Warming and to increase resource efficiency in UK construction.

How can the demolition industry help with efficient use of materials to minimise CO2 emissions and what changes do we need to see to be able to increase our contribution to reuse and recycling of materials?

Currently members of the National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC) have to make annual waste returns as part of their annual membership renewal process. The figures show the annual recycling and reuse rate is currently around 92%, let me repeat that, NFDC members reclaim 92% of the waste they produce so it can be recycled or reused (see UK Waste hierarchy definitions) in the construction industry. If hazardous waste is excluded from the total waste produced the recycling and reuse rate is 98%.

To give a feel for the quantities involved, from 2012 - 2017 NFDC members recycled or reused 136,395,628 tonnes of material. The UK Demolition Industry has achieved this level of reuse and recycling through constant innovation by contractors and equipment manufacturers because of a mixture of drivers like cost of landfill, maintaining margins, environmental legislation.

These are impressive numbers but to help make the difference regarding reducing CO2 we will need to increase the percentage of materials that are reclaimed for reuse, dramatically. This is where we need the help of Policy, Regulation, Clients, Architects, Designers, Engineers, the list goes on.

The demolition Industry is ready, willing and able to take on any changes in short order but we need legislation e.g. end of life for buildings, Architects to design buildings to be demolished, Product designers to manufacture products and components that can be reused, engineers to be comfortable with reusing components, Building Regulations to require a percentage of reused components, Architects to specify reused components……for example.

The debate about efficient use of materials within construction has been going on for many years unfortunately without much action. Put simply what is needed is modular building products and techniques which meet modern requirements that can be reclaimed and reused in a similarly simple way to how a brick laid on lime mortar 150 years ago, is reclaimed and reused today.

Products and materials will need a Material Passport so they can be verified for reuse. This is currently happening in Holland and is outlined in a thought provoking article by Oliver Wainwright about opportunities to reduce CO2 in construction. Unfortunately, my feeling is Mr Wainwright hadn’t talked to any demolition contractors.

The UK Demolition Industry can help with and should obviously have some input in to any design for reuse within construction. The Demolition Industry needs to improve its reporting on reuse and recycling across the industry so we can measure its effectiveness.

Legislation alongside Clients and Architects specifying reused materials will create value in and a market for reusable building products. This will be key, if the value of these products outstrips the costs of time and labour to segregate these materials in future demolition projects there is a danger lots of materials in future buildings will not be reused.

One of the many challenges is the time line. We are currently demolishing building stock that is typically 50 plus years old and containing building materials used at the time, none of which were designed to be demolished easily. This means new reusable components and products specified in new builds today won’t be available to the circular economy for another 50 plus years.

This is where using CDM manuals for existing buildings will allow us to identify, passport and reuse many items already being used in current buildings. This will also help shorten this time lag. Example Items which could be reused now if the construction industry was compelled to, include fire doors, ceilings, flooring, M+E equipment etc… This will work very easily from a demolition viewpoint in refurbishment strip-outs as these are generally utilising hand demolition techniques so getting materials out for reuse could be easily increased, if there was an incentive.

Demolition was founded on reuse and recycling and has been doing so since Roman times. The UK Demolition Industry is World leading and has a fantastic knowledge base that can help meet the challenges of mitigating Global Warming in construction. I would urge policy makers and designers to design in demolition and reuse into future construction projects.

Nick Williamson

MIDE FARMI