News

The Ultimate Sustainable Building Material

11 June 2007

The current trend in environmental policies focuses in the main on sustainability and the recyclable credentials of building materials. We are all aware of the environmental factors involved and that these credentials are set play an increasingly larger role in the industry as these trends continue.

Smart Systems are committed to working with our supliers and customers in use of sustainable resources and the promotion of the sustainable credentials of aluminium fenestration products.

A popular well known fact about aluminium is that when the old Wembley Stadium was demolished, 96% of the aluminium was reclaimed and recycled. Recycled aluminium is what the European Aluminium Association (EAA) terms an “Energy Bank”. This is because the aluminium recycling process uses only 5% of the energy used to create primary aluminium from bauxite ore(1). The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) estimates that 55% of world aluminium production is powered by renewable hydroelectric power(2). The recycling process creates high quality aluminium which loses none of the physical properties of primary aluminium, meaning that it can be endlessly recycled for use as new products without losing physical quality. 

Aluminium is the third most abundant material on earth after oxygen and silicon, making up 8% of the earths’ crust(3). The current reserves are estimated to last for at least 400 years without factoring in recycled aluminium(4). Because aluminium is endlessly recyclable these reserves of become in effect inexhaustible.

Aluminium is created from bauxite ore which is mined from reserves all over the world. Bauxite is generally found in deposits 4-6m thick just below the top soil. Bauxite deposits are extracted by out-cast mining, where standard practice when preparing a site is to remove the top-soil for storage, for use in site restoration. The IAI conducts regular bauxite mine rehabilitation surveys. The survey in 2002 reported 97% of world bauxite operations had rehabilitation operations in place, and that the relationship between the total areas mined and mined area rehabilitated was 83%(5). The survey concluded that the majority of rehabilitated area was returned to its original state. This shows that the process of extracting aluminium from the environment has minimal long term impact.

The life cycle of aluminium products is measured in terms of decades rather than years. As a building material it is durable, requiring little long term maintenance. It is resistant to corrosion and common industrial pollutants giving aluminium products a much longer life cycle even in extreme environmental conditions. The EAA calls aluminium a ‘cradle to cradle’ material because although a particular product may have an end of life, aluminium as a material can be continually recycled and manufactured into new products.  

The use of sustainable building materials is only one part of the answer to the environmental issues that affect us all. By using aluminium products you are choosing a material whose production has minimal long term impact to the environment, is sustainable in terms of hundreds of years and endlessly recyclable. Aluminium can rightly be said to be the ultimate building material and the building material of choice for the future. 

References
1. Council for Aluminium in Building
2. International Aluminium Institute
3. European Aluminium Association
4. European Aluminium Association
5. International Aluminium Institute

Links
Council for Aluminium in Building
www.c-a-b.org.uk
European Aluminium Association
www.eaa.net/eaa/index.jsp
International Aluminium Institute
www.world-aluminium.org