Recycling figures raising the bar as Lenton tower blocks get recycled
When five sixteen storey tower blocks are demolished you would expect there to be some considerable waste heading back to landfill. But in Nottingham that’s not the case. In fact thanks to the commitment and partnership working between contractors working on the city’s Building a Better Nottingham programme, just 3% of the potential waste is heading to landfill.
Hucknall-based Total Reclaims and Colwick firm, Wastecycle, are together ensuring that nearly 30,000 tonnes of materials that have so far been pulled down with the Lenton tower blocks, are either being reused on site, recycled, or taken somewhere else in the city to aid other building projects.
When Nottingham City Council (NCC) and Nottingham City Homes (NCH) embarked on the huge demolition and new build programme across the city, they called on their contractors to meet exceptional standards of recycling on-site, and minimise the environmental impact of the scheme.
Each tower block in Lenton produces more than 9,500 tonnes of rubble, as much as possible of which is crushed on site to be used as hardcore for the new development. The remaining rubble processed into various recycled aggregate products and then moved on to sites across Nottingham, including the new A453 trunk road and the tram works.
The soft strip method which is used in the demolition means that as much as possible is taken out from the fabric of building, before the actual demolition of the structure begins. By the time Total Reclaims set the demolition robots to work taking the first few floors down, the buildings are just empty shells. One the building are down to ten floors the high reach machinery can get involved, pulling down the remainder of the building.
It is anticipated that around 9,500 tonnes of material will remain on site to be used as hardcore, the equivalent to one of the blocks staying in the ground where it once stood.
From baths to boilers, pipes to windows and doors, Wastecycle has been responsible for recycling the remaining 500 tonnes of waste found inside the flats, as well as the metal from the steel structure.
In Lenton Keepmoat has already started work on Palmer Court, the new independent living scheme made up of 52 flats, communal areas and gardens. This is being built in the footprint of the former Lenton Court. A further 90 family homes and bungalows will be built on the site, once demolition is complete. The firm’s construction team is also working at a 97% recycling rate, ensuring that every element of the Lenton site is reducing its carbon footprint as much as possible.
East Midlands Today came along to find out more about how these impressive recycling figures have been achieved.
