Jan 17 2007
Midland Brick (part of the Boral Group) was proud to be nominated as a finalist in the 2006 Western Australia Environment Awards, in the Resources and Waste category.
The nomination recognised the recycling programme that has been developed where all imperfect and waste product made on Midland Brick's Middle Swan clay brick manufacturing site, as well as from their Cannington and Jandakot masonry sites, is now recycled.
The waste product is crushed and added (in varying optimal percentages) to the clay mix for internal bricks, without affecting the strength or technical specifications of the finished product. Internal research found that there was capacity to accept more of this waste, so Midland Brick developed a test programme to collect building site waste with Pindan Construction, which has had very promising results to date.
The general public are also encouraged to return waste bricks and pavers to Midland Brick's Middle Swan, Cannington, Jandakot, Osborne Park and Joondalup sites for recycling.
The most important aspect of this programme is that the brick waste is 'clean' - that is, it does not have any foreign materials such as timber, paper, plastic, metal or excessive mortar in it.
This recycling initiative not only saves consumers and builders money in tip fees, but helps to reduce the amount sent to landfill and the volume of new clay resources required.