Apr 2 2007
Proposals for reducing the 109 million tones of waste produced by the UK construction industry every year were published today for consultation.
Around 13% of all the solid materials delivered to construction sites goes unused, and up to one third ends up in landfill. Around a third of all fly tipping includes waste from the construction, demolition and excavation sectors.
Today's consultation proposes to make Site Waste Management Plans a legal requirement for all projects in England worth over £250,000. Those responsible for Plans would need to assess the waste that will be produced on a construction site and detail how it will be reused, recycled or disposed of.
During construction, the Plans would be updated to record what actually happens to the waste, including the legitimate disposal of materials that cannot be reused or recycled. This audit trail would reduce the potential for fly-tipping and increase the accountability of contractors. Higher level reporting and review processes would apply to projects over £500,000.
Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) should also help the construction industry to get maximum value out of its waste and make better use of resources.
Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said:
"The increasing number of construction projects up and down the country are indicative of a healthy, growing economy. But all this comes at a price.
"The UK's construction output is the second largest in the EU. The industry uses a tremendous amount of raw materials, much of which ends up as waste. Each year 400 million tonnes of solid materials are used in the UK construction industry but only two-thirds is added to the building stock. The rest is sent directly to landfill.
"Rising levels of waste crime are stopping us from achieving a sustainable construction sector, and rising numbers of fly-tips around the country, many of which are made up of construction and demolition waste, adversely affects the quality of life in many communities.
"It's essential that industry is seen to be taking this problem seriously. We can only expect householders to reduce their own waste if they understand that they do this as part of a much wider process which demands action from every one of us."
The issues addressed in the consultation include whether to make SWMPs a statutory requirement or to continue the existing voluntary approach, the minimum level at which a project should require a SWMP, the level of detail they should offer, and how the SWMP can improve resource efficiency.
The anticipated benefits of SWMPs include:
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Saving the construction industry money. The savings to be made across the industry should far outweigh the cost of writing and implementing a SWMP, which for many companies will simply be a case of recording site management information on waste separately.
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Closing down the market for illegal waste operators by ensuring that only registered waste carriers and licensed waste management sites are used by those responsible for construction projects. This will improve the industry's compliance with the Duty of Care regime and should result in less fly-tipping of construction waste.
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Improving site safety by allocating specific areas for recycling and proper storage of materials. There is a strong correlation between poorly organised construction sites and high accident rates.