British Lime’s Sustainable Development Report highlights importance of lime to national resilience

The past decade has seen a significant reduction in carbon emissions, waste and the use of fossil fuels in Britain’s essential lime sector. Those are just some of the highlights in the British Lime Association (BLA) Sustainable Development Report 2021 which sets out the sector’s performance during 2020 and emphasises the vital role lime plays in everyday life.

In a year of unprecedented challenges, production of lime had to continue to ensure safe drinking water, treatment of wastewater and the cleaning of emissions from incinerators, energy-from-waste plants and other large combustion processes. Lime is also critical for several core manufacturing industries including steel and plastics.

As with many sectors, the pandemic affected lime markets, particularly construction, and sales were lower in 2020, around 1.1 million tonnes. However, BLA Members maintained export markets during these difficult trading conditions and sales of lime for environmental protection remained strong, demonstrating the importance of lime to clean air, pure water and pollution prevention.

Representing the UK Lime Industry

The UK lime industry provides the hidden ingredient for the essential products in everyday life. Lime is used for anything from drinking water purification and iron and steel manufacture to environmental remediation and emissions cleansing.

There are two types of lime manufactured in the UK, which are high calcium lime (quicklime, hydrated or slaked lime) and Dolomitic Lime. Around 2 million tonnes of lime is produced every year, which is made from quarried limestone or chalk.

The British Lime Association (BLA) represents the three major UK manufacturers of lime; Lhoist UK, Singleton Birch Ltd and Tarmac. The BLA is part of the Mineral Products Association, the trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar and silica sand industries www.mineralproducts.org.

BLA is part of the Mineral Products Association, the trade association for the Aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, lime, mortar and silica sand industries. www.mineralproducts.org