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Research commissioned by the Alex Fraser Group, Australia’s largest recycler of construction and building waste, has found that carbon impact of recycled concrete is 65% less than the equivalent freshly quarried material. Alex Fraser General Manager for Corporate Development , Jim Playsted, says the surprise findings of an RMIT University Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) into the carbon foot print of recycled building demolition material produced by the group is important information for cities planning to offset their carbon foot print and will inspire the Alex Fraser Group to invest in more research into the favourable impact Alex Fraser materials can have, on city infrastructure. “We now know each tonne of concrete we recycle has a carbon impact only 65% less that of an equivalent freshly quarried alternative. In fact, from our 20 million tonnes produced so far, RMIT say Alex Fraser production has saved the CO2 green house gas equivalent of taking 29,000 cars off the road for 1 year or the approximate equivalent of generating enough energy to power a city of 45,000 homes for 1 year”. The release of the LCAreport coincided with the Alex Fraser Group celebrating 20 million tonnes of concrete diversion from landfill, from sites in Melbourne since 1987 and Brisbane since 1995. Since the Alex Fraser Group commenced diverting concrete and steel from landfill, the company has collected enough material to fill a silo the size of the MCG, to a height of almost 1 kilometer high. Recycling concrete also recovers reinforcing steel – another good reason to be recycling. From 20 million tonnes of construction waste, Alex Fraser has recovered enough steel to build almost 4 more Sydney Harbour Bridges! The Alex Fraser group took 16 years to produce their first 10 million tonnes by 2003 after a difficult struggle to have their materials accepted in the early days. It doubled that amount in only 5 years to 20 million in 2008 as the concept caught on and is forecasting a 40 million tonne milestone by only 2014. All this has not gone unnoticed – Alex Fraser won a national Gold Banksia Award in 1995 for environmental leadership. Alex Fraser was operated by the McKellar family from Melbourne for more than 100 years before UK company John Swire & Sons took equity late in 2006. Swire are best known for Cathay Pacific Airlines and operate several other businesses in Australia including cold storage, logistics and agricultural holdings.
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