Guidance on Construction Site Waste Management

Waste Aware Forth Valley This guide is intended for use by professional builders, developers and tradesmen. Using good waste management practice on site will help your organisation to comply with environmental legislation, reduce your costs and assist in creating a positive image of your business.

This guide is also intended to help builders/developers meet their obligations under the Council's Supplementary Development Advice Note - Managing Waste in Housing and Commercial Developments.

The benefit of good waste management practice:Lower disposal costs e.g. reduced skip hire, landfill tax, and gate fees
Avoidance of waste transportation costs
Greater reuse / recycling of materials on site, saving on raw materials purchased
Lower levels of material wastage

Good Practice on Site

Buying and Storing Materials

Order the amount of materials you need as accurately as possible;
Arrange for 'just in time' deliveries to reduce storage and material losses;
Consider the source of materials (Is the company certified with environmental standards? Quality materials and recycled materials may prove cheaper).
Consider the packaging used for materials delivered to the site -can this be reduced or recycled.
Ensure that deliveries are rejected if damaged or incomplete
Make sure storage areas are safe, secure and weatherproof (where required)
Store liquids away from drains, burns and in bunded areas to prevent pollution.

Site Activities

Ensure options for the use of reclaimed and recycled construction materials, that meet the materials specification are considered.
Recycle suitable spoil, demolition materials, prunings, and surplus construction material arising from the works on site to avoid the need to transport materials.
Keep the site tidy to reduce material losses and waste.

Training and awareness

Promote good practice awareness as part of health and safety induction / training for workers onsite.

Waste Segregation

Segregate different types of waste as they are generated using different skips where possible (given the space available). At a minimum there should be skips for wood, inert and mixed materials, although a skip for metals may generate some income. If there is a shortage of space and not enough room for multiple skips get a licensed waste management company to deal with waste - they may be able to recover recyclate materials from mixed skips.
Use the Waste Aware Construction website where you can create posters in line with the National Colour Coding Scheme to identify skips easily.

Staying on the right side of the law

Complete waste transfer notes before any waste leaves the site
Ensure all waste carriers have a valid waste carriers registration certificate
Ensure all wastes are disposed of at a correctly licensed site
Complete notification for hazardous waste to SEPA (tel: 0800 389 5270)

Useful sources and how they can help

Waste Aware Construction

On this website you will find information about the National Colour Coding scheme for the source segregation of recyclable materials, links to other sources of information and ways Construction & Demolition companies are able to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their waste. A poster creator tool following the national colour coding scheme is available to assist with the labelling of material types.

Site Waste Management Plans: Guidance for Construction Contractors and Clients

The document sets out a basic structure for a Site Waste Management Plan and how companies can best use them to improve and manage their operations at all stages of site activity. It includes useful checklists and other guidance to help ensure the Plan is a practical tool.

Information on the Construction & Demolition National Best Practice Project Interim Briefing Note

In the National Waste Strategy, SEPA undertook to carry out periodic studies into 13 priority waste streams as well as the best practicable environmental option (BPEO) for municipal solid waste (MSW) as set out in the various Area Waste Plans (AWPs). The priority waste streams were selected for further study due to their size, hazardous nature, potential for recycling, or value.

The Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA)

CIRIA are currently developing Best Practice examples of waste minimisation in the UK Construction sector. CIRIA is constantly developing a programme of seminars, through the Construction Industry Environmental Forum (CIEF) to disseminate examples of best practice in the industry, as well as developing its own training packs. On the 8th October 2004 CIRIA opened their first office outside of London. The new office is in Scotland and is based in Dundee University. Contact details can be obtained from the CIRIA website.

Netregs

Details of all the legislation and process guidance relevant to the Construction & Demolition can be obtained from the NetRegs website. This is a joint agency website containing the legislation for all four of the home nations in the UK. It covers legislation and guidance for all major industry sectors.

Building Research Establishment (BRE)

SmartWaste - a tool to allow auditing processes for demolition and construction projects.With a hand-held facility to enable site and building surveys, this tool collects data in a downloadable format, providing functionality for chart and report production. The system can then be used to identify the main waste streams on-site and to facilitate waste management plans. A useful development in the system is the interaction with the BRE website where data from individual companies is added to a database, allowing benchmarking against national averages etc.

Resource Directory

AggRegain -the sustainable information service from WRAP

This is a directory of suppliers of recycled and secondary aggregate products, at locations throughout the UK. The supplier database, which is part of the UK Recycled Products Guide is operated by Waste Watch, and is regularly up-dated.

CIRIA -Database of construction-related recycling sites in the UK

This is a register of sites in the UK which will buy or sell materials that have been recycled.

BREMAP - Web based Geographical Information System

This is part of the BRE SMARTWaste System. It allows the person accessing the data base to type in their postcode and BREMAP will pin-point waste management facilities and materials/products within a region.

RecycleWood

RecycleWood is an interactive resource produced by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme) to help producers of wood waste find collection services and recycling facilities. This is a free resource that can be used simply by entering your postcode.