Acheson & Glover wins Quarry Products Association NI award for Ballygawley site

A new smart, cost-effective and environmentally friendly concrete waste re-cycling process has won local concrete manufacturer, Acheson & Glover, a prestigious award for Environmental Project of the Year at the recent Quarry Products Association NI (QPANI) Environment Conference and Awards held in Cookstown.

Presented by Minister of the Environment Edwin Poots, MLA, the Tyrone based company was recognised for championing best environmental practice at its flooring factory in Ballygawley. “Our management and staff share a strong commitment to the principles of sustainable development, the environment and the local community” said Aaron Currie, Risk Manager, Acheson & Glover. “We are delighted to receive this QPA award as we continue to work hard in this area for the benefit of local people and the environment.”

As with any concrete manufacturing process, Acheson & Glover was faced with the costly challenge of legally disposing of concrete waste product that did not meet the required standards of its rigorous Quality Assurance Controls. After much research a decision was made to look at the possibilities of recycling the concrete waste product back to aggregate form and use a percentage of the recycled/secondary aggregates back into its mix designs for production purposes.

The aim of this was to reduce the demand on ‘Primary Aggregates’, thereby prolonging the life of their own quarries and also reduce the TCO2 generated by transporting the lorry loads of aggregates from the quarries to the manufacturing location, which was an 80 km round trip to the factory in Ballygawley. A further aim was to fully support and back up Acheson & Glover’s Sustainability Policy.

“The manufacturing of our product range relies heavily on various grades of aggregates and sand of which many are sourced from one of the company’s quarries in Belcoo or Fivemiletown, said Aaron. “In addition to the heavy demands on aggregates and sand, senior management were conscious of the vehicle miles required on a daily basis to transport the aggregates from the quarry to the manufacturing location and the TCO2 this was producing.”

Initial recycling trials commenced at the beginning of October 2008 when a contractor specialising in ‘Crushing and Screening’ of aggregate was brought to the Ballygawley site to work through the 8,000 tonnes of concrete waste product that had accumulated. At the end of October 2008 trials were complete and proved successful with an 80% recovery on the 8,000 tonnes of concrete waste recycled. Acheson & Glover was left with almost 4,000 tonnes of 10/14mm aggregate and 2,400 tonnes of sharp sand.  A series of rigorous in-house tests and analysis followed to ensure the recycled aggregates were ‘fit for purpose’ in meeting the required strength tests.

Further to work on the various mix designs within Acheson & Glover’s laboratory on the percentage ratio of sand, cement, water, primary aggregates, recycled/secondary aggregates and cement, a suitable mix design was created to facilitate the use of the recycled/secondary within its products.  Not limited to its use within the manufacturing of precast products it has also been used within Acheson & Glover’s concrete block manufacture.

Following on from the success of this project at Ballygawley, Acheson & Glover now intends to carry out a similar exercise at its Hollowcore Flooring Factory situated in Magherafelt by recycling a further 10,000 tonnes of concrete waste product into 10/14 mm aggregate and sharp sand.

For more information about Acheson & Glover, please visit  http://www.acheson-glover.com/

For more information about the conference and the awards please visit http://www.qpani.org/