Recycled bricks primed for production in Scotland after £1m funding boost

Bricks made from recycled construction and demolition waste are set to go into commercial production in Scotland, with clean tech company Kenoteq having secured £1m funding to help scale-up manufacturing of the its eco-friendly 'K-Briqs'.

The company, originally spun out from Heriot-Watt University, claims that by re-purposing valuable waste material from the construction industry, its K-Briqs produce less than a tenth of the carbon emissions and require a tenth of the energy of regular bricks.

Kenoteq claims its recycled bricks are "a circular-economy exemplar" that will help lead a "circular economy revolution for the construction sector".

And yesterday the firm announced it has secured £1m backing from Zero Waste Scotland - a non-profit funded by the Scottish Government and the European Regional Development Fund to help build a circular economy in Scotland - to help commercialise production of up to two million of the low-carbon bricks each year.

Kenoteq said the move would help to create 15 new jobs and support the UK construction industry to build an estimated 924 low-carbon homes in the next five years.

The company's managing director, Sam Chapman, hailed the significance of the move for an industry that currently contributes over 800 tonnes of waste to landfill in Europe every year.

"The construction industry faces a tremendous challenge when meeting decarbonisation goals," he said. "The K-Briq presents an opportunity for the construction sector to reduce landfill, limit reliance on finite resources and take advantage of waste materials to create a more sustainable and ecologically viable built environment. The K-Briq slashes energy use, both in its manufacturing process and also once in use as it has double the insulation properties of existing bricks and blocks."

The K-Briq is the result of more than a decade of research at Herriot-Watt University into innovative, low-carbon products created from recycled construction waste.

Iain Gulland, Zero Waste Scotland's chief executive said the current approach in the construction sector of creating, using and disposing to landfill valuable materials was "unsustainable".

"Construction relies heavily on finite resources and presents huge potential for circular economy interventions to reduce demand for, and waste of, virgin materials," he said. "Innovations like the K-Briq can help to tackle climate change, deliver a more competitive Scottish economy, mitigating resource security and addressing the subject of corporate social responsibility within the sector. As nations around the world commit to building a greener future, the K-Briq presents an achievable solution for one of the construction industry's greatest challenges. Kenoteq is an excellent example of the abundant pioneering innovation in Scotland which can help to place us at the forefront of the global circular economy frontier."