Opportunities to use

recycled materials in building

Why specify recycled?

Each year in the UK, construction activity consumes 420 million tonnes of material. This equals the mass of seven family cars
for every man, woman and child. But many products could use larger amounts of material that are currently being dumped
in landfill – saving money and natural resources, and enhancing overall sustainability.
In May 2004, the Government’s Sustainable Buildings Task Group recommended introducing a minimum requirement for
recovered materials in building projects. The proposal is that 10% of the materials value of a project (not per product) should
derive from re-used, reclaimed or recycled content. Requirements could be set through Building Regulations and/or contract
specifications in public procurement.
You can readily increase your use of recycled content in building projects, using “Quick Win” options that are:
• Cost-competitive
• Available and meet industry norms for technical performance
• Environmentally sound and potentially eligible for credits in a BREEAM or EcoHomes assessment.

The two main strategies are product substitution (e.g. using aerated blocks with 50% instead of 0% recycled content),
and switching to an alternative design/specification. The first option is relatively simple and low-risk, whereas changing a
construction specification requires careful consideration of a wider range of factors, not just recycled content.

What is the potential to increase recycled content?

Case study analysis of the “Bill of Quantities” for five construction projects gave the following levels of recycled content (as a
percentage of the value of materials used in the project):

Facility “Current practice” “Good practice”

Residential detached house 12.1 14.6
Commercial office building 9.6 12.2
School class room complex 12.2 14.9
Road reconstruction and realignment 8.2 26.7
Bridge reconstruction 18.3 32.7

Each facility either nearly met or surpassed the suggested 10% benchmark at “current practice”. But by switching to currently
available versions of products with higher recycled content – termed “good practice” – the three buildings could have increased
their overall result by one-quarter, at no extra cost. (The same result has recently been demonstrated on Defence Estates’ barracks
modernisation programme SLAM.) In the two infrastructure projects, the potential for improvement was substantially greater.
Major contributions to recycled content included blocks, boards, bulk aggregates and concrete products.

Where do you look?

WRAP has published a guide quantifying the potential for improvement, structured around three levels of recycled content:
standard practice, good practice and best available. Data tables are illustrated below and list details for:
• Specifications for building elements, such as internal walls
• Component products, such as blocks and plasterboard.
 Recycled content of specifications (per m2)

Green
Initial Recycled Typical
Recycled Materials Recycled Guide
Specification installation input by service life
input value (£) value (£) summary
costs (£) value (%) (years)
rating
Aerated blockwork Standard 23 4.99 A
partition, 41-53 Good 71 22.13 15.65 A 60
plasterboard, paint Best 85 18.79 A

Recycled content of products

Recycled content
Materials Product (as a % of mass)
Standard Good Best
Dense block 0 10 20
Brick & Lightweight block 50 60 80
block Aerated block 0 50 65
Clay brick 0 5 9

On current projects, switching to good practice or best available products is likely to be the simplest option. On a new
project, however, there is scope to consider alternative specifications, without increasing costs or other environmental
impacts – e.g. towards the right hand side of the following graph.

Recycled content, price and environmental performance for external wall specifications

10 0 60 0

90

50 0
Cost range of
80 Quick Win
specifications
70

40 0
Recycled input

Cost range (£)

by value (%)

60

50 30 0

40

20 0

30

Good Practice
20

10 0

10

0 0

A A B B B B A A B B B A A A B B A B B A A A A B B B B B B B A B A B A A B A A A B A A A A A B

Green Guide Rating

Note: Designers and specifiers will need to select designs and products suited to their particular applications,
and consult with their suppliers to verify that product options meet requirements

What action can you take?

The key strategy is for clients to set requirements for recycled content upfront in their contract specification process – for
the project overall. Architects, contractors and the supply chain will then have a clear remit and signal to find the most
cost-effective solutions, while meeting overall requirements on sustainability.

For more information…

See the guide to "Opportunities to use recycled materials in building"
at www.wrap.org.uk/procurement

Printed on Revive Matt, at least 75% recycled paper.