THE TRUTH ABOUT CONCRETE

ZE
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Z E R O W A S T E – Z E R O H A R M

concrete
T H E T R U T H A B O U T C O N C R E T E

AFTER WATER, CONCRETE IS THE MOST WIDELY USED MATERIAL ON EARTH
We are now very aware of Climate Change and the need to reduce emissions of CO2, yet despite
our government agreeing to the Paris Protocol we continue to do business as usual.
We are aware we need to stop consuming single use plastics, yet the cement industry continues to
consume more concrete every two years than all the plastic produced over the past 60 years.
Instead of single use plastics we should be looking to the most widely used building material on
the planet — concrete — as one of the major keys to the solution.
WE CAN NOW PUT AN END TO THIS CONSUMPTION
Because of its ability to endure, concrete serves as the foundation of modern life, but – like any
good thing in excess – it can create more problems than it solves. For hundreds of years, we have
been willing to accept the environmental downside of concrete, in return for the benefits, but each
bag of concrete tips the world closer to ecological collapse.
The road construction and maintenance sector is one of the worst contributors, consuming
concrete and creating carbon waste on a daily basis for repairs. This violates the Paris agreement
on climate change, under which every government in the world agreed that annual carbon
emissions from the cement industry should fall by at least 16% by 2030. It also puts a crushing
weight on the ecosystems that are essential for human wellbeing.
Ironically, it is a new-age Smart plastic (made entirely from toxic waste from the production of
petroleum) that provides the solution

worksafe
T H E R I S K T O R O A D W O R K E R S

THE SAFETY OF ROADWORKERS
Road workers are risking death on a daily basis spending hours working in dangerous traffic
digging up concrete footings, risking injury or death from underground services. As populations
grow so does the amount of traffic on our roads, the congestion, and the number of underground
services, substantially increasing the risk of workplace injury
In addition to traffic and underground obstacles, roadworkers are facing a growing risk of skin
cancer with rapidly rising levels radiation but the most insidious risk comes from working with
highly toxic concrete dust.
THOUSANDS ARE NEEDLESSLY DYING EVERY YEAR
Though it might not be obvious to the millions of people who spend their days surrounded by this
apparently innocuous material, concrete costs the health – and the lives – of thousands of
construction workers every year. Similar to asbestos problems of the past century, the chief culprit
is silica dust.
Silica dust is 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, and exposure can lead to many health
problems: it is highly toxic, prompting eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation, and contains
calcium oxide, corrosive to human tissue, and chromium, which can prompt severe allergic
reactions. Without proper protection, it can scar the lungs and lead to silicosis, which is associated
with chronic wheezing, arthritis, cancer asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder,
tuberculosis, kidney disease and reduced life expectancy.
Despite this knowledge roadworkers dig up and dispose of concrete waste on a daily basis. Efforts
to recycle concrete are expensive and ultimately this also ends up as landfill. Instead of recycling
concrete we need to make it more resilient, and when possible, we need to make it re-usable.

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W E C A N A C H I E V E Z E R O W A S T E A N D Z E R O H A R M

WILL FUTURE GENERATIONS THANK YOU, OR CONDEMN YOU?
If we are to achieve our goal of sustainable development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. (Bruntland, UN,
1987) the single most important factor is to design more resilient roads and urban developments.
With growing world-wide populations concentrated in urban regions, we urgently need to put an
end to these resource and dangerous maintenance practices that are putting lives at risk and
consuming valuable resources. Without decarbonizing the civil industry, we stand little chance of
achieving the Paris goals.
Current methods provide no future benefit, each year consuming more and more of these vital
resources. Recycling concrete is a start (but ultimately this is a costly process and the concrete
remains ultimately destined for landfill) but to become sustainable we must make concrete
foundations re-usable.
We can now build Smart self-healing roads and footpaths and urban developments and we can
heal existing cities one foundation at a time, or we can continue to do business as usual and leave
it to future generations (for whom all of these problems will be intensified) to clean up our mess.
Future generations will either thank you for your foresightedness
or condemn you for your lack of it

START TODAY LAYING
THE FOUNDATIONS
FOR A BETTER
FUTURE
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