Driving on broken glass
HANSON Aggregates have signed a three-year contract to take up to 6,000 tonnes of waste glass a year – 24 million bottles – from two local authorities for use in asphalt roadbases.
Previously, glass from Isle of Anglesey County Council and Conwy District Council had been transported some 200 miles to Barnsley in Yorkshire to be recycled. Now a proportion of it will be crushed and screened at Hanson’s plant at Gwalchmai on Anglesey and incorporated within asphalt mixes for local road maintenance.
The crushed glass will make up about 10% of asphalt mixes, saving the equivalent weight of fine aggregate. ‘Although we won’t be using it in the top surface of the road, it is an ideal replacement for fine aggregate in the basecourse,’ explained Hanson’s product development manager, Steve Southam. ‘It has no effect on the quality of performance of the asphalt.’
A clear benefit for the initiative is the proximity of Isle of Anglesey County Council’s waste-collection centre, which is next door to the Hanson plant. Meirion Edwards, the council’s principal waste-management officer, described the initiative as an ‘excellent example’ of working in partnership with industry to develop local markets for locally produced waste.
If the North Wales project proves successful, Hanson hope to set up similar facilities elsewhere in the country. Talks have already begun with Tynedale District Council in the north-east of England and Cornwall County Council in the South West. There is also considerable potential for the product in areas such as south-east England where transport costs are high, quarried materials are scarce and more waste glass is produced.
