Sheet Piles and Sustainability
Sustainability is top of many organisations’ and Governments’ agendas, given the huge global concerns about climate change and the stripping away of the planet’s resources. Such concerns also affect our own sheet pile industry, so Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd is pleased to say it plays its part in helping to maintain the green credentials of projects equally worried about natural resources.
Sustainable Steel Sheet Piles
So how sustainable are steel sheet piles? One of our steel sheet pile suppliers, ArcelorMittal has highlighted how steel sheet piles can be reused between three and ten times, without loss of any of their properties. Piles can be extracted from the ground, once they have served their purpose on a project and can be reused elsewhere, on another site. Should a steel sheet pile have come to the end of its life it is 100% recyclable in an electric arc furnace, which enables the material to be transformed again, into steel products that are of the same or enhanced quality.
ArcelorMittal was the first steel manufacturer to conduct a Life Cycle Assessment of its steel sheet piling products and it has also published an Environmental Product Declaration, highlighting how seriously it takes its environmental responsibilities.
Recycling Sheet Piles Through Hiring and Sale and Buy Back
Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd encourages the re-use of steel sheet piles by offering a hire facility for projects requiring temporary sheet piles and also a ‘sale and buy-back’ option. Sheet piles sold through either of these services are used in limited-period scenarios and we carry a wide range of trench sheet and steel sheet piles for those wishing to hire them.
We support both our hire and ‘sale and buy-back’ facilities with our own in-house design team, who can help clients determine how best to use the sheet piles within a project. This helps minimise wastage. We can deliver hired sheet piles to locations UK-side, using the services of our FORS and CLOCS compliant transport partners.
Sheet Pile Stockholding
At Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd, we hold a vast amount of stock – around 3000Te of temporary sheet piles. This means we do not have to keep shipping product in from overseas and creating more carbon emissions each time we do so. This helps us keep emissions as low as possible and also means we can always supply sheet piles to a project that needs them.
Summing up
By encouraging a re-use and recycling mentality, we are able to build sustainability into our steel pile business and do not have to strip the planet of the virgin ore or create CO₂ emissions whilst doing so. We would encourage projects to take up our hire and sale and buy back options, so they can become part of a virtuous recycling circle, rather than having to deal with the burden of recycling their sheet piles via a waste plant.
Additionally, we should add that we have other ways of helping the environment through the equipment and methodologies that we use. We cause as little disruption to nature as possible, working with clients to try to minimise impacts on habitats and wildlife and we have even designed our own long-reach rig, to avoid having to dig up embankments unnecessarily, just to build rig platforms.
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Sheet Piling (UK) Limited is one of the UK's leading piling contractors. Owning and operating a comprehensive range of specialist piling equipment Sheet Piling (UK) Ltd also carry extensive stocks of new and used piles enabling rapid reaction to any urgent requirements or emergency situations.