CALL US ON 01506 431 321 BOOK NOW! RECYCLED PRODUCTS WASTE MANAGEMENT PROCESS SUSTAINABILITY ABOUT US RESOURCES CONTACT US Our Process Revolutionizing how the construction industry deals with its waste and manages their resources In 2018, Brewster Bros invested in a state-of-the-art wash plant to recycle construction, demolition and excavation waste. Our wash plant is the core of our business. It’s the largest recycling plant of its type in the UK and is helping shift the way the construction and demolition industry in Scotland treats waste and consumes natural resources. 1 Our Process Waste is fed into the recycling plant and any oversized materials are removed (anything over 100mm). The oversized material is crushed to an appropriate size before being fed back into the plant. Circular Economy The wash plant is a closed loop system, recycling up to 90% of the water it uses and producing minimal residual waste. Any organic matter is composted here on site and used to restore the wider site to further minimise waste. It takes a whole year to fill just one of our trucks with the residual waste (such as plastic foils and polystyrene) that is removed by the plant. To put that into perspective, around 220,000 tonnes of waste come through the plant in a year and less than 20 tonnes of that can’t be recycled and is recovered for energy as a Refuse Derived Fuel. That’s 0.01% residual waste and zero waste to landfill. Putting waste to landfill is harmful to the environment and with construction and demolition waste accounting for over 50% of Scotland’s total waste, it’s easy to see that this method of waste management isn’t sustainable. The plant processes the soil and rubble collected by our tipper lorries from construction sites and turns it into high-quality recycled aggregates, ready to be reused. Our recycled aggregates are used by everyone from builders, construction companies, concrete producers, ground workers, civil contractors, utility contractors, landscapers and even for domestic projects too. Putting waste to landfill is harmful to the environment and with construction and demolition waste accounting for over 50% of Scotland’s total waste, it’s easy to see that this method of waste management isn’t sustainable. By recycling your waste you’re: Saving £3 per tonne by avoiding paying landfill tax. Helping the environment by reducing carbon emissions. Minimising the damage caused by landfill By using recycled aggregates: You’ll save £2 per tonne as you won’t be liable to pay the aggregate tax. Helping the environment by reducing carbon emissions. You’ll negate the impact of procuring virgin materials. The Recycling Process Explained When we receive an enquiry for waste management or to purchase our recycled materials, we gather all of the relevant information from the customer to generate a quote. Once the price and volume is agreed, then we can schedule a time for our drivers to collect the waste or deliver the product to you. This job management process from sales enquiry, to scheduling and fulfillment to invoicing is all taken care of by our digital ‘JobWatch’ system from Bigchange. JobWatch allows us to operate completely paperless which makes your paperwork logistics a lot easier. For waste management, we require a WM3 classification of material to come off site as non-hazardous before we can arrange a collection or drop off. On arrival, the waste is checked at the weighbridge to ensure it is consistent with the site investigation report and can be processed through the wash plant. On entering the process, a powerful magnet removes any scrap metals before the waste is processed. The waste is then given an initial rinse and screened to remove anything over 40mm and separate it into either a coarse fraction (4-40mm gravel) or fine fraction (0-4mm sand). Anything below 4mm (sand, silt or clay) is sent through the sand plant where centrifugal force is used to separate the denser sand from the less dense silt/clay. The sand then lands on a dewatering screen and is conveyed to either the sharp or soft sand stockpiles ready to be used. The remnants are processed through the water treatment system where flocculant is firstly added to help settle the silt and clay out of the water in the clarifying tank. The clean water then filters through a final ‘piano wire’ screen where floating micro organics are removed before entering a holding tank to be recirculated around the plant. Meanwhile, the silt/clay slurry is pumped from the bottom of the thickening/clarifying tank into buffer tanks before being pumped into the filter press. The press acts like a giant vice and squeezes the water from the slurry at high pressure leaving a high quality impermeable cake behind that is useful for water attenuation and general fill applications. By the end of the process, the plant will have cleaned, separated and sized the waste into high quality usable materials. The five core products that come from our wash plant are: 0-2mm soft sand, 0-4mm sharp sand, 4-10mm gravel, 10-20mm gravel and 20-40mm gravel. OFFICE Drumshoreland Road, Pumpherston, Livingston EH53 0LG Phone: 01506 431 321 QUICK LINKS Recycled Products Waste Management Process Sustainability JOIN US OPENING HOURS Mon 7.30 AM – 4.30 PM Tue 7.30 AM – 4.30 PM Wed 7.00 AM – 4.30 PM Thu 7.30 AM – 4.30 PM Fri 7:30 AM – 4.30 PM Sat 7.30 AM – 12.30 PM © Brewster Bros / Site by inside&out Cookie Policy / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use / Sitemap We use cookies to optimise our website and our service. Cookie Policy Functional Statistics Marketing Accept all Save preferences