Does reclaiming foundry sand lower or raise a foundry's carbon footprint?
Usually lower overall, but not on site. Mechanical reclamation adds electricity and thermal reclamation adds gas or oil to your Scope 1 and 2, while it cuts new sand mining, transport and landfill, which sit in Scope 3. Count both sides with your own figures before claiming a saving.
What goes up
- Electricity for attrition and classifying units x 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh.
- Gas, LPG or oil for thermal reclamation that burns off resin binders.
- Dust collection power.
What goes down
- New silica sand bought, and its quarrying and drying.
- Truck trips for new sand and for waste sand to landfill.
- Disposal fees, which often pay for the unit.
Report it fairly
Show the on site increase and the upstream and waste decrease separately, with the tonnes behind each. Buyers distrust a single net figure without the parts.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel, electricity and freight invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record per site, so each figure you send a buyer can be traced back to the documents behind it.
Sources: CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.