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From this May, Lafarge Cement's merchant customers in Great Britain will be able to use their existing ordering system to arrange for out of date packed cement to be collected straight from their yard.  The collection and recycling service applies to all Lafarge's packed cements, whether a merchant wishes to dispose of one bag or a full lorry load.

Disposal of construction materials has posed a growing problem for merchants, who are faced by escalating landfill taxes.  In 2008 the Government and the construction industry agreed a target of 50% reduction in waste going to landfill by 2012.  The subsequent year-on-year increase of £8 per tonne of waste going to landfill until 2013 has put huge pressures on both merchants and end users to find new means of disposing of their waste.

The collection and recycling service comes hot on the heels of Lafarge Cement's pallet recycling service, which was praised following its launch last year.  Under its latest service addition, Lafarge will collect all undamaged cement bags and has pledged to plant a tree with the local community in the vicinity its Barnstone Works for every tonne recycled.

Kieron Hall, packed marketing manager at Lafarge Cement UK, comments: "This is a fantastic initiative on so many levels. For our merchant customers, it saves money on skip hire and landfill charges and removes the problem of having to dispose of out of date cement.  For the environment, it reduces the amount of construction waste going to landfill and supports local green initiatives in the community around our Works.  We're proud to yet again be leading the field in creating an ever-more sustainable construction industry."

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Notes to editors

Lafarge is the world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in all of its businesses: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete and Gypsum. With 78,000 employees in 78 countries, Lafarge posted sales of Euros 15.8 billion in 2009.

In 2010 and for the sixth year in a row, Lafarge was listed in the ‘Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World'. With the world's leading building materials research facility, Lafarge places innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and architectural creativity.  

Additional information is available on the web site at www.lafarge.com

For further media information, please contact Sarah Taylor or Emily Luscombe at Camargue on 020 7636 7366 or via email at staylor@camarguepr.com / eluscombe@camarguepr.com