Meet Brewster Brothers, a company shifting the way the construction and demolition industry in Scotland treats waste and consumes natural resources. 

The problem with aggregate  

Brewster Brothers are a family run waste management company helping construction sites make use of their waste by treating it as a resource and transforming it back into a useful product, in the form of recycled aggregates. 

Virgin aggregates like sand are core building resources, but they are in limited supply. In fact, global reserves of construction sand are estimated to be fully depleted by 2050. Its mining also results in the disruption of natural habitat when excavating new aggregate at-scale.  

For this reason, construction companies are taxed in the UK on sand, gravel and rock that's been dug from the ground or dredged from the sea for construction purposes. 

Using recycled aggregates reduces the demand for these energy-intensive materials and buying recycled helps companies avoid paying £2 for every tonne of aggregate that they buy. 

The plant and the process 

Brewster Brothers use a state-of-the-art wash plant to recycle construction, demolition and excavation waste, one of the largest recycling plants of its type in the UK. 

They work with their customers to find out their waste management needs, take it from site, separate, wash, crush, size, and clean the waste through their plant. The output is high-quality aggregate, all the way from 0-2mm sand to 20-40mm gravel. They can then sell this product to companies that want to save money and bolster their site’s sustainability credentials. 

They process 300,000 tonnes of waste each year – and they are able to successfully recycle 99.9%. 

Stop wasting money  

According to Brewster Brothers, recycling your waste and using recycled aggregates will save £3.25 per tonne of diverted waste by avoiding paying the landfill tax, on top of the £2 per tonne tax-saved on the aggregates levy. 

It will also minimise the environmental damage caused by landfill and negate the environmental impact of procuring virgin materials by preserving our natural resources. 

Brewster Brothers have been working with Heriot Watt University for the past two years on a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to help develop their products further and they are also part of the BE-ST Materials Accelerator. 

Their innovative waste recycling system offers a lot of promise as it produces a desirable, sustainable outcome that results in a win-win for everyone.