What Did the Romans Ever Do for Circularity and Reuse?

Simon Guy • 27 June 2024

They gave us roads, sanitation systems, much of the basis of the language we speak, and how we calculate distances and numbers. They pioneered underfloor heating systems and introduced the idea of public baths, but to paraphrase the famous Monty Python sketch, what did the Romans ever do for circularity and reuse?


The Roman Empire at its peak spanned three continents, stretching from Egypt in the south east to Roman Britain and Hadrian’s Wall in the north west. They created new forms of architectural design, constructing aqueducts, expansive villas and amphitheatres. They undertook complex and sophisticated civil engineering projects, designed to project and maintain the power of the Roman military and celebrate the glory of Rome.


Roman builders utilised naturally occurring and locally available materials, chiefly stone, timber and marble. They also developed techniques for baking bricks and making some of the first concretes. They made long lasting mortars for brickwork and stone using quicklime, and it is a testament to Roman builders that we can still see the remains of Roman buildings and structures right across the expanse of the territories they conquered.


There is plenty of Roman concrete surviving today, even in challenging environments. Volcanic dusts, called pozzolana, made the concrete more resistant to salt water than modern-day concrete. Examples include the ruins at Empúries in Catalonia, with further evidence of circularity in the harvesting of materials from the Greek settlement dating from 500 BC. As the photos below testify, concrete, bricks and even ceramic pipework can last for thousands of years…

So the Romans generally built things to last, which is one of the primary considerations in designing more circular buildings. However it is not just about building to last, after the fall of the Roman Empire (which started to disintegrate in its western reaches around AD455 when Germanic tribes sacked Rome), the buildings the Romans left behind were repurposed and

reused for centuries, sparking a mass wave of reuse that has possibly never quite been surpassed since.


Hadrian’s Wall is another great example, and was one of the most impressive and lasting structures the Romans built in Britain. You can still see substantial remains if you travel from Northumberland across to Carlisle and Cumbria, stretching more than 70 miles. Construction began in AD122 by the Emperor Hadrian, in an attempt to protect Roman Britain from troublesome tribal chiefs and raiders to the north.


When the Romans abandoned Britain, the wall was largely intact (it had never been seriously breached) however no longer needed. It was never actually destroyed as such, instead it was gradually dismantled and reused. Hadrian’s Wall became a living quarry and ‘material bank’ for the stone to build castles and churches, farms and houses all along its length. There is evidence of this stone being reused in settlements right across the north of England, and it was only in the 18th and 19th centuries, in fact, that conservationists stopped locals from using material reclaimed from the Wall and similar Roman sites.

The rest of England is littered with buildings containing reused stone and bricks from Roman Britain. All Saints Church in Brixworth, Northamptonshire for example is one of the finest examples of Anglo-Saxon architecture in England. The Anglo-Saxons used reclaimed Roman stone and brick tiles in its construction, material which is thought to have come from the Roman towns of Lactodurum (Towcester) and Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester). It became a Grade Iisted building in 1954, so that Roman building material is likely to remain in use for at least a few hundred more years.


So perhaps to answer the question, it is not so much what the Romans did for circularity and reuse, but what they did together with those that followed - the Romano-British left behind after the collapse of the Empire, the Celtic tribes and Anglo Saxons who eventually filled the void left by the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. 


Their first instinct was to turn unwanted structures into new buildings that better suited their needs, and make use of valuable building products on their doorstep. They had a natural instinct for reuse and repurposing, and a stronger drive and focus for this, more than perhaps we have today.

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