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Sustainability

By taking materials at the end of their useful life and transforming them into higher value, long lived construction products, the UK cement industry has a key role in realising the Government’s ambition to double resource productivity by 2050.

Resource Use

  Units 1998 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Total waste and by-products used as fuel and raw materials tonnes 446,511 1,454,354 1,549,393 1,414,195 1,329,517 1,224,967

1,292,639

Proportion of raw material comprising waste % 4.0 5.9 6.9 5.8 5.0 5.1

 5.1

Proportion of fuel comprising waste material % 5.7 39.2 43.8 43.2 45.5 46.8 45.4
Biomass fraction of fuel input (100% and part biomass fuels) % Not available 

16.7

18.3 17.2 17.7 18.2

18.5

Process waste recovered onsite tonnes Not available 4,086 2,270 1,401 1,126 864

1,152

Process waste recovered off site tonnes 0 49,238 43,273 41,186 43,624 37,192

 31,095

Process waste sent to landfill tonnes 289,207 0 0 0 0 0

0


Climate Change and Energy

  Units 1998 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
CO2 emissions (direct emissions from cement plants) kgCO2/tPCe 924

696

693 697  702 701  671
Indirect CO2 emissions from electricity use  kgCO2/tPCe Not available

48

36 30  31 28 24


Natural Environment

  Units 1998 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Emissions of NOx kg NOx/tPCe 3.34 1.12 1.03 1.07 1.16 1.08

0.99

Emissions of PM kg PM/tPCe 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.05 0.04

0.04

Emissions of SO2 kg SO2/tPCe 2.56 0.45 0.38 0.42 0.44 0.42

0.29

Mains Water Use m3/tPCe Not available 0.03 0.07 0.04 0.04 0.03

0.03