OCL Regeneration’s New Recycling Centre to Revolutionise Road Construction
OCL Regeneration has announced the launch of a new recycling centre in Medway’s Hoo peninsula, dedicated to asphalt, concrete, and other road and construction materials.
This state-of-the-art, 3.2-acre facility aims to reprocess and recycle waste generated from highway and pathway construction and redevelopment projects, providing a sustainable solution for new building and road maintenance projects in Kent. By utilising treated and recycled outputs, the facility can significantly reduce carbon emissions by up to 50%, making it an eco-friendly choice compared to newly acquired concrete or asphalt.
The facility’s proximity to the Hoo Peninsula, Rochester, the Isle of Grain, and the Lower Thames Crossing is important, as all are key areas for redevelopment by Medway Council as it builds a prosperous Medway for the future. Medway Council also has ambitious goals for carbon reduction and limiting the county’s contribution to the UK climate emergency, and global warming. The recycling facility will be accessible for any business in need of recycled concrete, asphalt, and aggregates.
Stuart Gready, Founder and Managing Director of OCL Regeneration said: “Medway can take a leadership position in economic terms and with regard to the reduction of carbon emissions. With Medway’s aim to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050 and significant reduction by 2030, the door is wide open for sustainable development. OCL Regeneration’s recycled materials are the key to efficiency and carbon reduction, and our facility is poised to lead the charge in promoting sustainable construction in highway maintenance and civil engineering.”
Putting Medway on the Map
Previous uses rendered much of the Medway waterfront an industrial wasteland for decades. However, with the rise of leisure uses and a focus on waterfront regeneration, a new trend of city living, recreation, and economic opportunity has emerged in the county of Kent.
Underpinning the vision of the local authority’s Medway 2035 master plan is the Medway Regeneration Delivery Plan – a detailed analysis of the short, medium and long term actions which deliver the Medway authority’s ambitions for redevelopment.
The Medway Regeneration Delivery Plan provides a pipeline of projects aimed at delivering economic prosperity and facilities. The plan includes requirements for net new health, social care and wellbeing, education, transport and culture infrastructure, along with new homes at major new developments such as Rochester Riverside and Chatham Waterfront.
Cllr Alan Jarrett, Leader of Medway Council said: “This new state-of-the-art centre will enable businesses to responsibly dispose of construction materials as well as purchase recycled concrete, asphalt and aggregates. It is also great news that OCL Regeneration’s new centre will further help reduce carbon emissions across Medway, which supports our climate change agenda and aims to achieve net-zero carbon in Medway by 2050.”
Promoting Sustainable Development
Per Environment Agency (EA) requirements the site can recycle up to 75,000 tonnes of material per year, which if using traditional virgin materials would equate to a carbon output of almost 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Given some of OCL’s road repair solutions save 50 percent of CO2 emissions of traditional virgin materials, the potential reduction of carbon emissions is huge, almost 1,500 tonnes of CO2. To put that into perspective, that’s the carbon equivalent of 1,000 flights from London to New York.
The new facility will also reduce waste construction costs by recycling tar bound material which would otherwise require specialist disposal. And, due to the more environmentally friendly ‘cold lay’ technique OCL uses, it also means specialist insulated lorries are not needed to collect and deliver the material, leading to reduced carbon emissions, costs, and travel miles.
