Aberdeenshire Council says it recycles around 70% of its street sweepings and the recovered materials have now been turned into “sustainable and highly adaptable” building blocks.
The council collects all its street sweepings, which would previously have been sent to landfill, and sends them to Levenseat’s recycling facility in Forth, Lanarkshire.
The local authority says that sweepings are washed, sieved, separated and filtered. From there, according to the council, the aggregate and graded sand recovered from the process is used to create concrete that becomes an interlocking building product known as Lev-co blocks.
The blocks require no mortar, are long-lasting and fire-resistant, and can create strong, interlocking structures, which can later be dismantled, adjusted and repeatedly used elsewhere, the council says.
A circular economy helps to reduce waste, conserve resources and is an opportunity for a business to create a new revenue stream.
Lev-co blocks are manufactured from high-quality recycled and reclaimed raw material, Aberdeenshire Council says, which the council claims make them a more environmentally-friendly option than typical concrete blocks.
With the local authority rolling out its new kerbside collection strategy across Aberdeenshire, it says blocks such as these can be used to create separate, adjustable bays so that no contamination between the various recycling streams can take place.
Chair of the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee Councillor John Crawley, commented: “This innovative use of street sweepings is an excellent example of the circular economic approaches we should all be aspiring to for our waste and recycling.
“A circular economy helps to reduce waste, conserve resources and, in this instance, is an opportunity for a business to create a new revenue stream.”