Demolition firm and waste management specialist team up to recycle dismantled tower blocks in Nottingham

Reclamation specialist Total Reclaims and waste management firm Wastecycle have worked together to reuse and recycle around 30,000 tonnes of material left over from a demolition site, where five tower blocks were bulldozed, in Nottingham.


A total of 3% of waste from the demolition site has headed to landfill, according to Total Reclaims and Wastecycle.

Total Reclaims and Wastecycle are working as contractors for Nottingham City Council (NCC) and Nottingham City Homes (NCH), who have embarked on a demolition and new build programme across the city.

Five sixteen storey tower blocks have been demolished in Lenton, Nottingham, as part of the demolition project. The demolition arisings from the tower blocks have been reused on site, recycled, or taken somewhere else in the city to aid other building projects.

Wastecycle’s commercial director Paul Clements said: “We’re always looking for the most efficient and environmentally-friendly way to sort and handle the waste we deal with.

“The tower block sites in Nottingham have of course been a challenge, but we we`re keen to work alongside NCH and Total Reclaims to get the best possible results – and at 97% recycling rate, there’s very little more we could do to achieve our objectives.”

Each tower block in Lenton produces more than 9,500 tonnes of rubble, as much as possible of which is crushed on site to be used as hardcore for the new development, according to Wastecycle and Total Reclaims. The remaining rubble processed into various recycled aggregate products and then moved on to sites across Nottingham, including the new A453 trunk road and the tram works.

Total Reclaims director Richard Taylor said: “The soft strip method we are using with these flats gives us the opportunity to take out as much as we can from the fabric of building, before the actual demolition of the structure begins.

“By the time our demolition robots begin to take the first few floors down, we are dealing with an empty shell, and at ten floors our high reach machinery can get involved, pulling down the remainder of the building.

“Once we complete demolition on this site, we expect around 9,500 tonnes to remain there as hardcore, the equivalent to one of the blocks staying in the ground where it once stood. When you’re dealing with structures of this size, it’s fantastic to know that such a small proportion of it will end up in landfill.”

Liz Gyekye

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe