Wienerberger – raw material recovery show savings stack up at Kent brickworks.
Wienerberger Ltd’s Smeed Dean brickworks is located in Sittingbourne. The London Stock bricks made at the site for over 175 years have been used in the construction of Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace. These bricks are still made in the traditional way using waste town ash from London, giving the bricks their characteristic black spotting.
Simple but effective measures have been taken to recover sand during brick productions. A system was installed, at a cost of £10,000, for recovering sand from the frog of the bricks (the hollowed out area on the surface of the brick) by blowing air into the bricks under a hood to raise the sand from the frog. The sand is then sucked up through a vacuum. A set of sensors detect when bricks are passing under the hood so air is only used when required. The exhaust from the vacuum is directed into a water pit to eliminate any new emissions to air and this water passes through a sand separator for recovery and reuse.
These measures have saved 145 tonnes of sand; at £18 per tonne this equates to £2610 per year. Not only is this financially beneficial, it saves 7 lorry loads of sand being delivered to the site, which would have clocked up 690 lorry miles a year, so reducing traffic on the roads and carbon emissions to the environment.
Contact Email:
Organisation:
Business Link, Wienerberger ltd
Organisation’s website:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/southeast
Keywords relating to this case study:
Waste
South East groups case study relates to:
Business and economy
