EN Standards to boost recycled aggregate demand

"WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, is predicting that next year’s changeover from British Standards to the new European Standards for aggregates will significantly increase the demand for recycled and secondary aggregates."

"The new European Standards will allow for the use of recycled and secondary aggregates in more high-value applications than the British Standards they replace. They will also allow conformity ‘CE’ marking, which is important because the EU’s Public Procurement Directive permits only CE-marked products to be purchased with public money."

"Commenting on the new standards, John Barritt, WRAP’s aggregates technical adviser, said: ‘The introduction of the new EN Standards will be the biggest thing to happen to the aggregates industry for many years. Buyers, specifiers and suppliers will have to get used to doing business differently. This will undoubtedly include buying more recycled and secondary aggregates for higher-value uses such as sub-bases, concrete and asphalt.’"

"WRAP is undertaking a number of awareness-raising initiatives to help people manage their way through the transition period, which begins 1 January 2004 and will be completed by 1 June 2004, and in December this year WRAP’s free website information service, AggRegain, will be updated with new EN Standard technical notes and purchase order details."

"Other WRAP initiatives include working with the Quarry Products Association to introduce the new standards to the producers of recycled aggregates, production of information leaflets to support the changeover to the new standards, and working with the DTI and Buildings Research Establishment to deliver guidance on the use of recycled and secondary aggregates within the new European Standards."