SMR UK Helps Balfour Beatty Divert Thousands of Tonnes of Spoil from Going to Landfill

The Challenge

A £1.8 million water mains replacement scheme was carried out in Framingham, Norfolk, led by Balfour Beatty in partnership with Anglian Water. The project involved over 11km of trench excavations across multiple areas, generating more than 10,000 tonnes of spoil.

Traditionally, this volume of excavated material would have been sent to landfill, resulting in nearly 1,000 grab lorry movements, a 36,300 km round-trip haulage distance, and over 97,000 kg of CO₂ emissions.

The reliance on quarried aggregates like MOT Type 1 for reinstatement would have further increased the project’s carbon footprint and material costs. In addition, landfill tax, transport costs, and the environmental burden of waste disposal posed major challenges for project efficiency, sustainability, and compliance with waste diversion targets.

The team also faced technical risks. On a high-profile project of this scale, ensuring the stability of the reinstated backfill was critical. Any shrinkage or movement could have jeopardized the integrity of the reinstatement, leading to future remedial work and further site disruptions.

The Solution

To overcome the environmental and logistical challenges of the Framingham Earl project, SMR (UK) Ltd provided a proven, sustainable alternative to traditional waste management: SMR Eco.
Manufactured and supplied by SMR UK, SMR Eco is a patented dry powder binder used to stabilise and repurpose excavated spoil.

By mixing SMR Eco with spoil, a chemical reaction is triggered that dries out excess moisture, bonds soil particles together, and transforms the waste material into a high-performance aggregate replacement known as SMR PreMixd.

SMR PreMixd is a structurally sound, backfill material that delivers exceptional results—outperforming traditional Type 1 GSB in both strength and sustainability. Under compaction, SMR PreMixd increases the strength and density of treated material by up to 600%, making it a superior choice for backfill and base layers.

For this project, Balfour Beatty adopted our ‘Tip & Take’ service using one of our trusted third-party SMR PreMixd Distributors, Richardson Recycling.