This UK Recycling week, our chairman Graham writes on the challenges of recyling asbestos.

The waste hierarchy ranks waste management options according to what is best for the environment.

If your business produces or handles waste, you need to take all measures that are reasonable in the circumstances to apply the waste hierarchy to prevent waste and to apply the hierarchy as a priority order, when you transfer your waste to another person.

In the case of asbestos-containing waste, usage cannot be prevented as its use was banned nearly a quarter of a century ago. However, there is still more asbestos in the built environment than there is landfill capacity to take it. Asbestos-related diseases are still the most common cause of occupational-related deaths in the UK and throughout much of the world. Until recently, no alternative to landfill existed for asbestos-containing waste, but Thermal Recycling has now developed the option to recycle it. 

To be clear, putting asbestos into landfill is not removing asbestos, it is simply moving it from a building and putting it in a hole in the ground. The asbestos does not decay or degrade when it is in a hole - it simply stays there. At best this means the land can never be re-used; at worst, it creates an environmental problem for future generations to deal with. It is not a sustainable solution.

In the case of asbestos, recycling does not mean re-using the asbestos it means eradicating the asbestos and converting the resultant waste into a new substance. 

This new substance, which we have named Calmag, can be used as a cement replacement. The benefit of this is that reducing the use of cement (the production of which is one of the most CO2 generative processes on earth) more than offsets the emissions we generate by eradicating the asbestos. 

We are a true circular economy business – we reduce waste and create a new product that can be widely used.

Whilst there has been a huge amount of interest in what we are doing both from UK companies, consultancies and contractors, a major disappointment for us is the total indifference shown to us by the public sector. 

Whilst we have been contacted directly by the French Government and indirectly from many companies overseas who claim they could get support for opening one of our plants in their country, we have had no response or support at all from our own government, the Mayor of West Midlands or any local authorities. 

They are all under an obligation to apply the Waste Hierarchy. The public sector should be leading the way to a more sustainable future. As a proud UK business, we are world leaders in developing a process for dealing with a global problem. Unfortunately, the indifference of the public sector is not surprising – it is widely recognised that many great ideas are generated in the UK and developed overseas – it is nonetheless extremely frustrating.