South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)

Constructive Thinking about Waste

01 November 2006

The construction industry has made big strides in reducing waste in the last ten years – but with building activity increasing, especially in the South East, the total amount of waste is still rising. The sustainable development agenda, fierce competition, legislation and ever increasing costs mean the industry has to do more still especially promoting recycling and reuse of material.

Derek Rees, Chief Executive of The South East Centre for the Built Environment (SECBE), the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Sector Consortia for the construction industry says that reducing waste and promoting recycling is high on his agenda. "SECBE is a business led organisation with a very clear remit to create sustainable growth in the industry," he says. "Our Planet programme is aimed at reducing environmental impact and increasing business profitability by providing information and tools to achieve this."

Construction Waste Facts:

• Construction, demolition and refurbishment accounts for 100 million tonnes of waste each year
• 50% of this is recycled from the demolition sector and parts of the construction sector
• Over 400 million tonnes of resources are consumed by the construction industry each year
• Construction and demolition waste accounts for 32% of the waste produced annually in the UK
• 13 million tonnes of construction waste is of unused materials

Waste Exchanging

SECBE is developing a real time data system for waste handlers to analyse construction skip content and match it to a construction project's programme, allowing the site team to identify and remove the causes of waste. The greatest gains are on repetitive projects like housing and modular construction.

Another initiative which is to be launched on 13 December is SECBE's waste portal; an online service to help businesses exploit the range of help and expertise available to reduce waste. One approach it will promote is the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) which helps one business's waste become the resource of another. NISP helps promote the reuse of materials between industries through a web-based exchange and through consultancy, training and information programmes to help companies understand the opportunities and make use of them.

Regulatory Pressures

Inevitably, legislation will play its part in driving the sustainability agenda. From October 2007, almost every site will require a Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP); indeed many local authorities already encourage these when granting planning permission. SECBE is managing a series of workshops for building contractors and their clients across the region to explain the new rules. Derek Rees explains: "The workshop will be wholly practical, setting out the legal background and explaining how to prepare the SWMP, as well as enabling business delegates to feed back to government on the proposed process so they can also influence the final format. While the SWMP will be a legal requirement, it will also help contractors and their clients to cut costs as well as contribute to sustainability." The SECBE workshop programme is being delivered in partnership with Envirowise, which enables UK businesses to become more resource efficient, and will roll out into Kent, Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire. Details of this and other workshops can be found on SECBE's website at www.secbe.org.uk or call Tina McGeachan on 0118 9207204 for more details.

Smart Thinking

SECBE works in partnership with Envirowise, NISP and Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) to offer construction companies waste management benchmarking, pre-demolition audits, key demolition products for reuse or recycling, sourcing of local resource and waste management facilities as well as sourcing local supplies of reclaimed and recycled materials. A free self-diagnosis service is a popular starting point; SMART Start can measure a business against key environmental performance indicators for waste management.

"Moving from being the biggest single contributor to waste is going to be tough," says Derek Rees. "But the prize is worth it for everyone with increased profits, reduced environmental impact and happy employees and clients."

The construction industry is a key player in the South East Economy:

• There are 37,000 companies
• The industry is worth £18 billion
• 300,000 employees