Drumroll! And it’s finally here! We’ve started putting those UK architectural salvage yards on a convenient map. The salvage yards are the hidden gems of the UK building industry. Many people live near one without actually knowing that green and affordable building materials are just a few miles away.
You must have heard that Reuse is greener than Recycle. Well, it is true. Recycling materials still involve consuming energy. Reusing consumes only very little resources – it’s just transportation and storage. Reused and reclaimed building materials carry no embodied energy whereas new materials are generally full of it!
Compare this: production of a brand new brick accounts for 630 grams of CO2. A reclaimed brick accounts for 0 grams! That’s ZERO!
If you’re building a new eco-friendly house or just refurbishing your existing home to new sustainable standards, please check your local yard. You will be surprised how much money you can save. To start using the map now, please visit our Architectural Salvage Yards page!
Great post! Truly informative! Now i know that Reuse is more efficient compare to Recycle.
“A reclaimed brick accounts for 0 grams! That’s ZERO!”
hmmmm zero really?? what about fuel for vehicles to collect / deliver??
Thank you for the comment. It was meant in comparison with a conventional brand-new brick. If you’re building a house from bricks you will drive a lorry to your site anyway be it from a building supplier or a salvage yard. Besides, if you wanna dig deep and include transportation cost, it’s another “pro” in favour of a salvage yard as the majority of the new bricks are coming from abroad, hence incur a higher transportation impact than in a case when somebody demolishes a house in Dorset and somebody else local-guy picks them bricks up and reuses for his project 🙂