SUSTAINABILITY Andy Simpson, Hanson Cement
Craig Williamson, CEMEX Cement Commercial UK
significant, with a huge amount of work to be done across the industry to address the volume of plastic packaging in routine use and equally to provide new packaging developments and support to merchants as they navigate this new era.
The key concrete products plant at Northfleet, Kent, has seen a £100k CapEx investment in a new high-strength banding process, which means that plastic hoods are no longer required on dense and lightweight bricks and concrete blocks. As a result, Northfleet has eradicated 6.1 tonnes of plastic, or the equivalent of over 65,000 plastic water bottles, per year from its traditional plastic packaging process. Two new lines are now operating alongside the new paper bagging line, at the Rugby cement plant, to pack 25kg of cement into plastic bags. Williamson says: “Merchants are now reporting less broken bags and no longer need additional plastic waterproof sheeting to cover our products in transit.
Importantly, the new packaging meets the minimum requirement of 30% recycled plastic. Working with our merchants, plans are underway to further reduce more packaging waste from the supply chain.”
Timber reduction schemes
CEMEX has recently signed up to a charter produced by The Pallet LOOP – an innovative scheme aimed at minimising the consumption of single-use pallets in the construction industry. Around 18 million pallets are estimated to be used annually in the UK construction sector, but less than 10% are reused. In response, The Pallet LOOP scheme allows manufacturers to pay a deposit for distinctively-branded 100% FSC-certified green pallets, which are used to transport products to construction sites.
As LOOP pallets move through the supply chain, a deposit passes from manufacturer to merchant to end user. Once used, the scheme operator collects the pallets and returns deposits, before repairing pallets as necessary and recirculating them. Cemex’s timber reduction programme is further supported by CEMEX’s longstanding pallet recovery scheme with specialist pallet collector, ELM. Williamson says that the Northfleet plant is continuing to make environmental savings in timber by increasing the volume of void packs which reduces the volume of timber palleted products. Over 100 tonnes of timber – roughly the equivalent of 100 10-foot-high oak trees – was saved in 2021 and it is expected this figure will increase further in 2022. In 2021, the company joined the First Movers Coalition (FMC) and committed to accelerating decarbonisation technology innovation and development in heavy-duty on-road trucking services. “We have recently become the first global building materials company to complete a large-scale, multi-country pilot using fully
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electric ready-mix concrete trucks and expect to gradually introduce and test new prototypes for zero-emission ready-mix concrete trucks to the fleet. The road is long, but 2050 is here and now.” Over at Hanson Cement, packed products director Andrew Simpson says the industry’s reliance on plastic needs to end. “There are some heavy building products – particularly ones that contain aggregates with sharp edges – that are harder to supply without plastic packaging and, where this is the case, we have increased the recycled content of the bags and ensured that they are still 100% recyclable. But there are other products, like our best-selling Multicem cement, where a tough paper alternative is just as effective, which is why we developed Tough Bag. It contains 95% less plastic and has been independently tested and proved to be the toughest paper cement bag in the market – 50% stronger than any other – meaning it is still highly resistant to splits and tears.”
He says that Hanson is committed to fulling its role in meeting the UK government’s net zero ambitions. Its pathway towards carbon neutrality has been ongoing for many years and it has made significant progress, cutting CO2 emissions in the UK by almost 50% between 1990 and 2020. The company aims to achieve a further 15% carbon reduction by investing £55 million by 2025.
Cement production is energy-intensive and globally the industry accounts for around seven per cent of CO2 emissions. This figure is much lower in the UK at 1.5% due to a more mature economy with lower cement consumption and large-scale investment by manufacturers like Hanson to improve production efficiencies and use alternative fuels. Hanson’s cement business is the source of most (90%+) of its CO2 emissions, so is a key focus if the company is to achieve its 2050 net zero carbon ambitions.
Simpson says that, of these emissions, around 70% arise from the calcination process (the chemical reactions that take place in the process to produce clinker) and Hanson is actively working on a carbon capture and storage project at its Padeswood cement works in Flintshire that would remove these process emissions completely. “The remaining emissions are from the fuels used to power the kilns and we are working on a number of projects to switch from fossil fuels to carbon neutral sources, including hydrogen.”
Hanson is a partner in the HyNet North West consortium, which aims to create the world’s first low carbon industrial cluster through its development of a hydrogen and CCS project.
Simpson adds: “The project has been selected by the government as one of two clusters to capture and store CO2 by 2025. As a result,
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