Build for Living. Report.

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Across the group there is a growing awareness of the value of using non-virgin materials as production inputs.

Traditionally green (that is, unfired) bricks have been returned to the clay mix. Post-consumer and post-industrial waste have been successfully introduced into a range of products, especially as a partial replacement for cement in concrete panels (Austral Precast®) and masonry blocks (Austral Masonry®). Austral Masonry’s® Alphalite® blocks, for example, are comprised of 85 percent recycled content.

Common additives include fly ash, bottom ash and furnace slag (all by products of steel manufacture) and crushed glass. Coal slurry and coal shale are also used where appropriate, the latter having the added benefit of reducing natural gas consumption. Sawdust is also used at the Austral Bricks® Longford (Tasmania) plant as a fuel and an additive.