Sustainability Series
Week 4: Circular Concrete

Circularity is one of the five core commitments in the UK Concrete Sustainable Construction Strategy, highlighting the industry's drive to build more sustainably and reduce environmental impact across the entire life cycle of concrete. 

Achieving this involves retaining the value of concrete at every stage - from design and construction, through long-term use, to reuse and recycling. 

As part of Week 4 of the Sustainability Series, we’re focusing on how concrete supports a more circular economy by keeping materials in use for as long as possible and recovering value through the recycling of its constituent components. 

Wigan Civic Centre, Wigan, a regeneration project where original concrete features are exposed and former offices are reused for contemporary workspaces. Courtesy of shedkm.

Webinar: Refurbishment and innovative re-use of concrete structures

Retaining structures in use at their highest value for as long as possible is recognised as good practice to support a more circular economy practice. This event brought together members of the design teams for recent projects in which concrete structures have been successfully and innovatively reused. They explain their approach, the benefits of optimising the durability and long life potential of concrete, and how they overcame any challenges along the way. 

This webinar was recorded and is available to view here.

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Webinar - Evolving uses for concrete construction demolition waste

This presentation explains many of the current uses of recycled aggregates, with links to latest industry data and terminology. It will also share some of the areas of research, development and trials for alternative uses of waste concrete, which include the potential manufacture of new cementitious material, carbon capture, and a range of uses in the manufacture of new concrete to reduce embodied carbon. The session will be presented by Elaine Toogood, Senior Director,  MPA Concrete.

This webinar was recorded and is available to view here.

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Sustainability Series FOCUS: Recycled Concrete Fines

Within the 2025 Sustainability Series we're spotlighting cutting-edge technologies and innovation helping to reduce the carbon impact of concrete in both manufacture and construction. 

This Focus event explores recycled concrete fines and their potential use to help reduce the embodied carbon of concrete. It focuses on research being led by the Materials Processing Institute with the Mineral Products Association, Mott MacDonald and Aston University.  

The session is presented by Colum McCague, Technical Manager, MPA Cement followed by Q&A and discussion with Andrea Charlson, Senior Sustainability Specialist & Circular Economy Lead, The Concrete Centre.

This webinar was recorded and is available to view here.

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Spotlight on: Evolving circular strategies

The ideas of circularity are not new, but there is increasing refinement of what it means both for the built environment and for concrete. Our recently-updated Circular Economy Compass webpage provides links to resources that explore the topic.

Some resources that capture some of the latest thinking are: 

• The UK concrete sector has committed to evolve its previous Resource Efficiency Action Plan (REAP), into a Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP). As part of this process, The Concrete Centre organised an interactive webinar to obtain stakeholder feedback on 'developing concrete to support a more circular economy'. Watch the recording to see the results. Spoiler alert: durability is key!
• In the 'evolution of concrete architecture from a circular economy perspective' webinar, circularity strategies in relation to concrete architecture is explored. View it on-demand, here.

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Spotlight on: Reusing structural concrete

While refurbishing and using an existing building’s concrete structure is a preferred circular strategy, there is growing momentum around reusing structural components ex-situ. These resources share some recent innovative approaches:

• (P)RECAST - A cross-industry team has extracted precast slabs from a 60-year-old building and reused them in Denmark.
• The Squaring the circular economy article in the autumn 2025 Tall Building magazine (page 22) gives a snapshot of the innovative reuse taking place at Euston Tower, that will be explored in more detail in the live webinar.  
• The CQ Focus: Reuse magazine brings together recent exemplars and reflections on reuse of concrete.

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Spotlight on: Innovation in recycled products

The recycling and use of recycled concrete for use in construction is a well-established practice in the UK. However, new opportunities are arising for both the use of the resultant crushed concrete, along with other secondary materials. 

• The British Standard for concrete (BS 8500) allows for recycled aggregates to be used within concrete. The Concrete Centre guide, Specifying Sustainable Concrete: Aggregates outlines the key aspects you need to know.
• Canary Wharf Group has embraced circular thinking and has been able to crush the concrete from the 100-year old decommissioned site at Canary Wharf and break it down into its original constituent parts. This includes the aggregates, the cement as a paste and even the sand.  These recycled materials have then been used in the production of new concrete for projects on the site. Find out more in this video: Materials Circularity, UK Concrete with Canary Wharf Group - YouTube
• By reusing steel wire from waste tyres, researchers at Birmingham University are creating high-strength concrete with around one quarter less cost and carbon: Recycled steel fibre concrete.
• The ‘All in the Bind’ article in Concrete Futures, spring 2025 explored a number of innovations in secondary cementitious materials including recycled concrete fines and reclaimed calcined clay.