Waste regs affect aggregates production

The Quarry Products Association (QPA) has warned that production of 30 million tonnes of aggregate is at risk due to restrictive regulations governing the use of inert waste.

The waste is used in the restoration of quarries, a pre-requisite for the granting of permissions to extract primary aggregates in the first place. Yet a QPA-commissioned study of the Trent Valley revealed a 1.5 million tonne shortfall in the disposal of inert materials.

On a national basis, this lack of material for restoration equates to 15% of the UK's total aggregates production being at risk.

According to the QPA, the reason for this shortfall is the classification of inert material as 'disposed' rather than 'recovered' and the use of excessively stringent Waste Acceptance Criteria.

The cost and administrative burdens of these criteria mean the material is not disposed of at licensed inert landfills and is therefore not available to quarriers.

[Contract Journal, 26 July 2006, p. 13]