Sustainability Series
Week 3: Concrete's evolving role in a circular economy 

Enabling greater circularity across the built environment using concrete and encouraging the retention of concrete's value throughout all stages of its life cycle is one of the five core commitments of the UK concrete industry‘s refreshed sustainability strategy. This week will highlight resources which demonstrate concrete's role in a circular economy under the themes of reuse, recycling and dematerialisation. 

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Webinar: Developing concrete to support a more circular economy

This event brought together experts instrumental in evolving greater understanding in this area of development. Through interactive questions, delegates at the live event helped to highlight opportunities for further improvement, as part of the development of a Circular Economy Action Plan for UK concrete. 

Catch up on-demand: The event was recorded and is available as an on-demand resource. The webinar is available here.

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Spotlight on: Circular economy strategies using concrete 

There are numerous ways in which concrete can be used effectively to support a more circular economy.

• A new Concrete Compass for Circular Economy directs to current and evolving resources, guidance and case studies provided by The Concrete Centre to help designers and specifiers make informed decisions regarding their projects.   

Spotlight on: Reduce 

Doing more with less or ‘dematerialisation’ is a fundamental principle of circular economy and key to achieving lower carbon buildings. Concrete frames can take a wide variety of forms and adopting the most materially efficient option for a given layout and building type can lead to significant resource and carbon savings. The inherent durability, fire resistance and thermal mass of concrete can also lead to material savings beyond the frame – offering opportunities to omit finishes that may be required for alternative materials or reduce the equipment needed to heat and cool the building, where thermal mass is utilised. 

• More information on concrete frame types and material efficiency is available in the recently published Concrete Frames Explained.  
• A new version of Concept is now available. This free tool enables users to quickly compare embodied carbon of a wide range of concrete frame options, based upon material quantities required in design. Version 5 of includes the addition of a waffle slab option. Concept version 5 is available to download here. 
• More information on Concept including a step-by-step user guide is available here. 

Spotlight on: Reuse 

The inherent low maintenance and durable nature of a concrete structure together with its resilience to fire and the impacts of climate change, mean that it can remain in use over a long period, with the potential to be repurposed and reused multiple times during its lifetime.  

• Summary guidance for engineers for assessing the potential for reuse of a concrete structure can be found in the Concrete Quarterly technical article ‘Reusing structures: one step closer to a circular economy’ .  
• A collection of recent reuse case studies can be found in ‘CQ Focus: Reuse’  here. 

Spotlight on: Recycle 

The supply chain for demolishing and recycling concrete is well established in the UK but new technology is evolving to provide new opportunities. This includes the manufacture of a new cementitious material, carbon capture use and storage and the manufacture of new concrete whether as enhanced recycled aggregate or recycled concrete paste as a cement replacement.  

• This new paper Making Better Use of Recycled Concrete summarises the presentations and discussions of the online conference ‘Making Better Use of Recycled Concrete’ held in November 2023 in collaboration between The Concrete Centre and Cambridge University.  

Spotlight on: Recycled Aggregates 

The use of recycled aggregates for use in concrete, or elsewhere in construction, is well established in the UK, with around a third of all aggregate use provided by recycled products. But standards and practice are evolving. 

• New guidance, ’Aggregates in concrete – definitions’  has been developed to explain the correct terminology to use when describing and specifying aggregates for use in concrete, including those related to recycled aggregates.