Hadleys Construction Recycling In West Berkshire

Last month I went to visit the new waste plant in West Berkshire, near Theale.
I've discussed the principles of Green Building before, click here,
Green Building. Basically reduce reuse recycle applies to construction waste as well as domestic. But all building sites produce some waste, normally most of it goes to landfill which is becoming expensive as well as just throwing away what has cost energy and money to produce. Hadleys have spent a lot of money to process this and the end result is lots of good material ready to be used, and a small amount of landfill.

See their site www.hadleys.co.uk Aggregate Washing Facility.

In an effort to raise our recycling rates and divert more of our waste from landfill Hadleys have invested in a washing plant, this plant recycles excavation waste from construction sites into various grades of high specification recycled aggregates

Skips for storage


Sifting through material


Now thats a pile of wood, the best gets reused...


what remains is pulped, ready for a furnace to produce energy


Muck away lorries deposit their loads here


Aggregate wash, a monster peice of equipment, doing a great job.


and


Gravel, the finished product, ready for use.


We also discussed Plasma Gasification, turning waste into rock at high temperature. Hadleys can recycle 82% of mixed waste, as financial penalties make landfill less of an option, recycling becomes more attractive. I hope in the future this becomes standard, not the exception.

They are even talking about mining old landfill sites for its resources eg aggregates. Imagine when oil runs low, mining plastic to make containers/pipes etc. It will be a differenrt world from todays disposable culture.