Environment

Aberthaw Plant

Energy and carbon reduction

Sustainability is at the core of Tarmac’s business and is deeply embedded in our culture. Our sustainability strategy plays a central role in our vision to become our customers’ preferred choice for sustainable construction solutions.

We have set ambitious commitments and targets based around four key themes - people, performance, planet and solutions.

The cement made at Aberthaw and the range of construction materials produced by Tarmac’s business, play a vital role in the construction industry.

The UK Government has set targets around carbon reduction and sustainability, which will change the built environment. As a leader in the UK construction sector, Tarmac is set to play its part.

Read about Aberthaw’s use of waste derived fuels

Regulation and Governance

Our operation is strictly regulated by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) through our environmental permit.

We are required to meet UK legislation on air and water emission limits, and European legislation (the waste incineration directive or WID) for our use of waste-derived fuels.

We have made significant improvements to our environmental performance by reducing levels of these emissions.

We have high-tech systems in place to monitor all aspects of our operation in great detail and in line with the requirements of our operating permit. With some of our emissions, we have continuous (24-hour) monitors established and with others, we are required to gather data ‘extractively’ on a regular basis as specified by NRW.

Environment FAQs

Have you got a question on how the operation at Aberthaw affects the environment? We have some helpful answers for you below.

If your question isn't here, contact us directly on [email protected]

We continuously monitor certain emission during our operational hours, these monitors are very precise and have to meet EU and UK quality and reliability standards as well as being calibrated by an independent skilled third party. The data from the monitors is recorded in our control rooms where alarms will trigger if emissions are breached. Every 3 months we submit the daily data to our regulators to demonstrate compliance and all records are retained at the plant for at least 6 years to be reviewed if necessary. Copies of our returned data can be found here.

Other emissions where technology does not allow continuous measurement an independent certified test house takes samples of our emissions and test them in a laboratory every 6 months to check levels are in compliance.

Our Environmental Management System (EMS) sets out procedures to ensure we can comply with our limits and our operators and managers work very hard to ensure we do not go over the limit, however, if we do then this is reported to the regulator in line with our permit and EMS. Investigations are carried out to understand why we went over the limit and corrective actions put in place to prevent this from happening again.

The main emissions from the Chimney are Carbon Dioxide and water vapour, this is the steam you sometimes see if the weather conditions allow, much like boiling a kettle in a cold or hot room. Other major emissions are Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), Sulphur Dioxide (SOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Particulates (Dust) . NOx, SOx, CO and Dust are all continuously monitored against limit values to show they are at safe and acceptable levels. These limits along with other smaller emissions are listed in our permit along measurement requirements.

All of our quarries have restoration plans to develop them in line with local need at there end of their life. The final restoration is agreed with the local authorities and examples of former quarry restoration across the UK includes retail and commercial developments to nature reserves, outdoor classrooms and woodland walks. It is important to note that not all restoration is carried out at the end of quarry operations, we are constantly conducting restoration work as areas of the quarry finished in order to reduce the operational footprint and visual impact of the quarry.

Before any work starts on a new quarry an environmental impact study is carried out to check for animals and flowers/grasses which need to be preserved or relocated. Only once this is done the quarry will begin. During the quarry operation, many animals choose to make their home in the quarry and live happily alongside our operations. Animals and birds often seen living in the quarry will range from rabbits, foxes, badgers and hares to swallows, swifts, bats, kestrels, owls and peregrine falcons. When these animals take up residency we work alongside them with respect and ensure any activity which may disturb them is not carried out during sensitive times such as when they have young.