The UK aggregates sector has made good progress on achieving sustainable operation, says the UK’s Mineral Products Association in its latest report on the sector.
The 2016 Sustainable Development Performance Summary shows the industry has a particularly good record on recycling, emissions, logistics, quarry restoration and biodiversity and environmental management, said Nigel Jackson, chief executive, Mineral Products Association.
But he warned that further urgent action is needed to improving future health and safety performance. The report showed a deterioration in the Lost Time Incident Rate. “These results heightened the need for further urgent action to be taken in improving future health and safety performance,” Jackson said.
The report key highlights
- Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate - MPA members’ Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate deteriorated slightly from 3.25 to 3.79. This was coupled with five fatalities of four employees and one contractor recorded in 2015 indicating a clear need to continue focusing on the industry’s hard target of Zero Harm
- Public safety - The focus on public safety around active operations, on disused sites and in the transportation and use of our products has increased
Recycled and secondary aggregates - the recycled and secondary aggregates share of the GB market remained high and is estimated to represent 28% of the market, nearly three times higher than the average market share in Europe - Airborne emissions - there has been a sustained and significant reduction in airborne emissions from cement plants since 1998 and 2015 saw the continuation of this trend
- Operational carbon dioxide emissions - There was a general improvement in operational carbon dioxide emissions from the majority of products, except cement
- Local supply chains - average road delivery distance for aggregates was 35miles/52 kilometres, asphalt 27 miles/56 kilometres and ready-mixed concrete 7 miles/12 kilometres
- Rail freight - rail freight remains highly significant for the sector, accounting for 10% of aggregates and 28.4% of cement (aggregated with water) representing over 20 million tonnes
- Marine dredged aggregates - marine dredged aggregates landings increased again to 13.2 million tonnes in 2015, dredged from 82.7 square kilometres of the UK seabed, less than 0.01% of the total UK seabed.
- Quarry restoration and biodiversity - there was further progress on quarry restoration and biodiversity as MPA records an additional 469ha of land restored to priority habitat and a further 2748ha planned for future priority habitat creation
- Certified environmental management systems - 100% of cement sites and 92% of aggregates quarries surveyed reported that they operated with certified environmental management systems.
