University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

Discussion: What Could Product Stewardship Offer the
Precaste Concrete industry?
The precast industry designs, produces and consumes precast concrete products for
use in the built environment. As a major player within the construction industry, the
precast concrete sector needs to face these challenges to manufacture products that
suit these requirements in relation to government, client and other stakeholder
requirements for more sustainable construction. For example, UK and EU legislation,
product standards, government strategy and market mechanisms are all putting
pressure on the industry to change (CPA, 2007). According to DEFRA, the
Government needs a more sustainable approach on resources use and a reduction of
waste going to landfill (DEFRA, 2009). With the construction industry producing
around 90 million tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation (CD&E) inert
waste, UK government intends to halve waste to landfill by 2012 (BERR, 2008).
This also corresponds to the target set by the UK Concrete Industry’s Sustainable
Construction Strategy for the UK Concrete Industry (Optimat, 2008).
Mehta (2001) suggests that the concrete industry can reduce its environmental impact
through resource productivity by energy and material conservation in making
concrete and by improved concrete durability of products. In addition, Sinclair and
Quinn (2006) believe that some of the major reasons why there is an increase in
wastes are as a result of societal over consumption, ineffective production process
and poor product design. So, there is scope to improve the product stewardship of
precast concrete products at various stages. Figure 1 represents a typical sequence of
a precast concrete product through its entire life-cycle. By sharing responsibility by
all stakeholders, this can guarantee a reduced environmental impact of products since
there are people to be held responsible for these impacts. It means all stakeholders
associated with the sourcing, production, manufacture, transportation, use, disposal,
retail, reuse, recycling and disposal of precast concrete products take responsibility to
abate or mitigate the environmental and social impacts of the product.
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