Real and perceived barriers to steel reuse across the UK construction value chain

© 2017 Elsevier B.V. Although steel reuse has been identified as an effective method to reduce the carbon and energy impact of construction, its occurrence is shrinking in the UK. This can be partly explained by the many barriers which have been identified in the literature, but a detailed analysis of how these barriers affect different parts of the supply chain is still lacking. We show that there is a contrast between perceived higher costs and time required to employ reused steel and the assessments of realised projects. Using a novel ranking method inspired from the field of information retrieval (tf-idf), we have analysed interviews of actors across the supply chain to determine the acuteness of the perception of each barrier. We show that demolition contractors, stockists, and fabricators face specific barriers which each need to be addressed at their level. This is in contrast with more generic barriers present throughout the value chain which we show are probably more perception than reality. Finally, we suggest how supply chain integration could facilitate reuse and make it economically viable at scale

Options to make steel reuse profitable: An analysis of cost and risk distribution across the UK construction value chain

Although steel reuse has been identified as an effective method to reduce the carbon and energy impact of construction, it is in effect only a marginal practice. A detailed analysis of the costs and risks of reuse in practice in the uk is lacking. We found that although there is a sufficient spread between the price of steel scrap and new steel, this difference cannot be captured by the demolition contractors. Rather, reused steel is somewhat more expensive than new elements, except in certain circumstances such as when the reused elements are available from a nearby site, or when testing elements can be avoided. Further, we show that neither the costs of steel reuse, nor the risks, nor its benefits are spread equitably throughout the construction industry supply chain: most of the substantial and capital-intensive changes required for the widespread adoption of steel reuse are concentrated on steelwork contractors and stockists. Based on this analysis, we suggest helping the emergence of a specialised stockist.This research was supported by Innovate UK, project ‘Supply Chain Integration for structural steel reuse’, ref. 132106; EPSRC Material demand reduction: NMZL/112, RG82144, EPSRC reference: EP/N02351X/1