Jul 8 2005
The Scottish Construction and Demolition (C&D) industry is being urged to reduce, reuse and recycle building and demolition waste through the launch of Waste Aware Construction, a new tool to tackle construction waste by introducing colour-coding for skips.
Developed by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), in conjunction with the Construction Confederation and the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG), the new colour-coding system uses seven posters, each with a designated colour, symbol and one word explanation of the contents to be displayed on or by skips.
The system has been designed as a practical and affordable way to increase the segregation of recyclates at source and help on-site workers automatically associate colours and codes with the correct waste stream. 38 companies have already signed up to Waste Aware Construction, which enables companies to create and download posters for free from the Waste Aware Construction website.
With the UK construction industry annually producing three times the amount of waste of all UK households combined and 13 million tonnes of waste consisting of materials that are never used, colour coding has been identified by the construction industry as an effective way of providing the following business and environmental benefits:
- Raising waste awareness;
- Separating waste at the source;
- Reducing the amount of construction waste sent to landfill;
- Increasing cost savings to construction companies.
Ross Finnie, Minister for the Environment said: “This is an excellent idea. Providing simple information on the segregation of materials can help companies improve their recycling performance. This can help reduce companies’ disposal costs – helping the bottom line – as well as being good for the environment”
Launching the event, Alasdair MacLennan Interim Manager of ICE Scotland, welcomed the initiative: “In Scotland alone, 2.32 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste were recovered last year and 2.57m tonnes were landfilled - with figures like these the construction industry have a key role to play in the drive to increase recycling rates.
He continued: “Feedback from the construction industry has told us that the colour coding system is an extremely effective way of providing all on-site workers with the necessary information to recycle waste materials. I hope that that this system will be embraced by many more companies within the construction industry as part of our ongoing efforts to reduce landfill waste in Scotland.”
The launch of Waste Aware Construction took place at the Laing O’Rourke Canniesburn Residential Development site, Bearsden, and was attended by the ICE, The Construction Confederation, Laing O’Rourke and the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG). The launch was part of ‘The BIG recycle for Scotland’ - a week long campaign aimed at raising awareness of what, where, how and why to recycle. William Tracey Ltd is one the 38 companies to have already signed up to Waste Aware Construction. The company based in Renfrewshire has a fully integrated waste management structure that can deal with hazardous, non-hazardous, inert, household, commercial and industrial waste.
To find out more about the initiative log onto www.wasteawareconstruction.com or contact Paul Martin on 01786 468247.