New guide to reclaimed materials from BioRegional

WRAP have published the Reclaimed building products guide authored by BioRegional last year, all about reclaimed building materials. The 80 page A4 booklet, which is available free as a pdf from Wrap, contains an introduction, pages on products including bricks, metals, steel frames, roofing, timber, stone and internal, plus case studies and a suppliers directory.

The introduction states:
Use of construction materials has a significant impact on UK sustainability. In the UK, they annually account for 19 per cent of the total national ecological footprint, 23 per cent of the total national greenhouse gas emissions, 420 million tonnes of material consumption (7 tonnes per person), and 30 per cent of all road freight on UK roads. Substitution of a few well chosen, locally sourced reclaimed materials can reduce the environmental impact and the embodied carbon of a project significantly. For example, comparing the impacts of reclaimed and new materials shows a reduction of 96 per cent for reclaimed steel and 79 per cent for reclaimed timber. These savings can sometimes be achieved with little or no additional expense, making reclaimed an extremely cost-effective way of cutting carbon emissions.

Some of the stats have been drawn from work done by BRE and Salvo, and SalvoWEB and SalvoMIE (the underused materials information exchange for low value old and unused new building materials run by Salvo) are also kindly mentioned several times in the text.

Reclaimed building products guide by BioRegional [2.9MB pdf]
SalvoMIE
SalvoWEB
BioRegional Reclaimed
Wrap