Recycling cuts back engine emissions

The Scottish city of Stirling is seeing a determined drive to recycle demolition debris during the urban renewal of the Raploch area of the city. Working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), Stirling Council and Stirling Council Corporate Asset Management, the Raploch Urban Regeneration Company has developed a framework, based around WRAP’s Regeneration Guide, that demolition contractors had to take into account when tendering for contracts involving the demolition of four schools – St Mary’s RC Primary, Raploch Primary, Kildean Nursery and Raploch Nursery. The schools are to be demolished to make way for some of the 900 new homes that are to be built in the area as part of the regeneration project.

Concrete and other building rubble is to be crushed and retained on site to provide a stockpile of recycled materials for future use during the construction phase. The contractor carrying out the work, Beatty Demolition, was required to carry out an audit of the total tonnage of material, along with an estimate of the amount of this that could be recovered and reused. This estimated that a total saving of up to £60,000 (US$117,000) would be possible, with a total of 90% of material arising from the demolition being processed and reused on site. Vehicle movements on site would be reduced by 500, generating a substantial saving on fuel, as well eliminating 15 tonnes of carbon emissions.

The WRAP Regeneration Guide draws on the Institute of Demolition Engineers’ Demolition Protocol, site waste management planning and increased recycled content into a clear single approach that links demolition and new build phases of regeneration projects together.