Opening the door to cost savings through closed loop waste management

Waste is expensive - it costs us money so when looking at the whole life cost of procuring anything we need to look also at its disposal cost. So what if we can turn the waste product into something of value, where we have an income stream rather than cost centre? Sounds great but can it be achieved? Well Marks & Spencer believe so and have taken 30% of the capacity of Closed Loop Recycling Ltd's innovative East London facility. 

Changing sectors to the construction industry, when large, national contractor Balfour Beatty won a high value highways maintenance contract in Westminster, they approached Day Aggregates with a view to creating, together, a closed-loop waste process. This case study explains how working together they did exactly that.

Day Aggregates is an SME (small to medium sized enterprise) with an activity footprint across the South of England. The firm became involved in recycling in the mid 1990s when they realised that primary aggregate materials were being moved by rail from Somerset to London for use in construction, whilst at the same time waste products were being created on local demolition sites and not being reused. There was an evident need to address this dichotomy, both in terms of sustainability and economics.

In response, Day Aggregates created a process so that waste concrete, glass and asphalt could be collected from demolition sites, taken to depots, crushed and then re-used on other sites as aggregate. So when Balfour Beatty won a high value highways maintenance contract in Westminster, they approached Day Aggregates.

Days Aggregates opened a yard in Battersea to support all of their local operations, with the servicing of the Westminster contract in mind. This site is now used for the collection and sorting of waste, (including that from their work in Westminster), which is then crushed and used in a variety of works projects, including re-use on the highways of Westminster.

All together an excellent example of;

1. How an SME can add value to your supply chain
2. How to turn waste product into a valuable commodity
3. How partnership working with your supply chain can really add value.

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