From this month, Lafarge Cement’s merchant customers can arrange for out of date packed cement to be collected straight from their yard, via their usual ordering system. 

The service applies to all Lafarge’s packed cements, whether a merchant wishes to dispose of one bag or a full lorry load. Last year the company launched a similar pallet recycling service. 



Disposal of construction materials has posed a growing problem for merchants, who are faced by escalating landfill taxes. In 2008 the Government and the construction industry agreed a target of 50% reduction in waste going to landfill by 2012.

 

The subsequent year-on-year increase of UK£8/t of waste going to landfill until 2013 has put huge pressures on both merchants and end users to find new means of disposing of their waste. 



Kieron Hall, packed marketing manager at Lafarge Cement UK, says: "For our merchant customers, this saves money on skip hire and landfill charges and removes the problem of having to dispose of out of date cement. For the environment, it reduces the amount of construction waste going to landfill and supports local green initiatives in the community around our Works." 

The company will plant a tree at one of its works for every tonne of cement recycles under the scheme.
 
Source: Builders Merchant Journal