5
Fully fitted
5
Simple building
5
Shell & core
5
Shell only
Minimum standards
To reduce construction waste by encouraging reuse, recovery and best practice waste management practices to minimise waste going to landfill.
Value
- Minimise cost and environmental damage resulting from waste going to landfill.
- Maximise the recovery and reuse of construction materials to avoid unnecessary extraction and processing of virgin materials, and associated vehicle movement.
- Reduce construction costs resulting from wastage on site.
Context
One-third of all waste in the UK, i.e. 120 million tonnes of waste per year, is generated by the construction and demolition sector, which is the largest contributor of waste in the nation.
Best practice solutions include off-site construction, where construction waste can be halved, the adoption of waste management methods such as the waste hierarchy, and the implementation of the circular economy concept, which provides an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose). This approach is adopted by certain manufacturers that offer a 'take back' scheme and by design teams that use the concept of 'design for deconstruction'1.
Reducing waste simultaneously reduces the environmental impact as well as the cost of the construction process. The true cost of waste encompasses the cost of the product or material that is wasted, the cost of handling waste and the cost of waste management. While there may be revenue associated with the recycling of certain material streams, typically construction sites have to pay for collection or processing of the waste. Legislation in this area has changed over time, however the benefit to the developer and the environment of avoiding unnecessary materials use and waste remain the same.