Matt Tallon is sustainability director at FM Conway
The idea of circularity is gaining ground in construction and in business generally but, sadly, talk isn’t always translating into action. The Circle Economy Foundation’s 2024 Circularity Gap Report shows that the world is actually going backwards on resource conservation and reuse. Most extracted materials entering the global economy are still virgin, with the share of secondary materials declining from 9 per cent in 2018 to 7 per cent in 2023.
“The key to unlocking circularity is to make it mainstream”
The numbers might be a little depressing but they also mean there’s an opportunity for UK construction and infrastructure to lead the way, setting a benchmark for others to follow in how we approach and handle waste. It’s something we need to do if we want to make headway on net-zero targets. In my sector – highways – asphalt, paving blocks, kerbs and even water are just some resources that can be recovered and used again. We can take circular principles further, applying them to energy and heat usage, too.
Recycling and smarter use of resources won’t solve the carbon challenge on their own, but they can go a long way to reducing the whole-life footprint of assets and structures. So how can we speed up progress?
Mindset change
The first step to adopting the circular economy is to change how people think. We have to challenge the idea that recycled products are in some way lesser or not as good as virgin materials. They often perform better thanks to the extensive research and development work that has gone into perfecting them. It’s certainly a pattern we see in highways, where recycled asphalt mixes with additives such as polymer modified bitumen can now deliver longer-lasting, more resilient roads.
Getting specifications updated to encourage and actively advocate recycling is essential to embedding this new mindset. It would be great to see minimum recycled asphalt levels introduced by regulators, for example, to push things along. Clients have to assess and balance risk, so these kinds of amendments won’t happen without knowledge and data-sharing across the industry. We are now working with highways operators to provide the evidence needed to prove that recycling can mean better, or just as good, outcomes.
Of course, investment is required to make circular models possible – both in material trials to develop these proofs of concept, as well as in the machinery, equipment and expertise needed to process recycled feedstocks. Changing how people see the value of reusable products and preserving this value through the recovery process will help to make investment pay.
Eye on the bigger picture
If part of the answer to maximising the benefits of circularity is about removing practical and attitudinal obstacles, the other is about understanding the role it plays in reducing whole-life carbon in construction. Recycling, especially, can help to cut embodied carbon. Our data shows that for every tonne of asphalt recycled, the embodied-carbon saving is around 60 per cent.
And we shouldn’t limit our ambition. The impact of resource reuse can be made far greater when it is stacked alongside other kinds of material innovation. In particular, we have to keep improving the resilience and long-term performance of assets. Yes, it’s great if we can develop designs using products that can be recovered and repurposed multiple times, but we should also be creating structures that stay in use longer.
In roads, that means considering how well the network can adapt to changing user patterns, including heavier vehicles, and respond to the evolving climate, from extreme temperatures to higher rainfall. Our research and development team are now working on specifications that will help us to push the average lifespan of a road from between seven and 10 years, to 15 or even 20. That’s a huge difference.
Finally, the key to unlocking circularity is to make it mainstream. The more we can make circular models and whole-life thinking the norm, the more the whole industry will benefit, as new techniques and products can be scaled and made more cost efficient. Greater standardisation around carbon measurement and adherence to shared accreditation standards like PAS 2080 will also mean we can more easily benchmark different solutions and delineate between greenwashing and real advancements. Surely that’s a future we all want to reach?
