Sifting through the rubble of construction waste

In the UK, 60 per cent of all waste comes from construction and demolition, which makes it the biggest waste creator of all industries. Added to this, statistics suggest that the UK construction industry is the largest consumer of resources, requiring more than 400 million tonnes of material a year whilst 13 per cent of products delivered to construction sites are sent directly to landfill without ever being used.

So, with the current mayor pledging to build 2,000 new homes by 2020 in Bristol, how is waste being managed locally and what is being done to reuse materials and reduce waste creation?

Demolition is the biggest waste creator because buildings are increasingly demolished by machines, for human safety. According to Thornton Kay, head of architectural salvage and reclamation business Salvo, means a process that once took six weeks now takes six hours and means that materials such as stone and wood, which would have historically have gone to the reclamation industry for reuse, are no longer salvageable.

What can be reused becomes aggregate (crushed stone and materials), typically used for creating roads on the new site. Although as Jenny Ford, a design and materials consultant, points out: “Quality resources can end up in road surfaces, squandering their inherent value.”

The rubble remains of the Brooks Dye Works in St Werburgh’s that will be used for aggregate for the new build

Previously, to minimise waste, construction companies were obligated to complete site waste management plans, but the Government scrapped these in 2013 to reduce ‘red tape’. Many large construction companies still do use these and will have multiple skips to segregate waste, but how well the onsite team actually segregates the waste will depend on the contractor and individuals. Sustainable house builders like HAB Housing (Kevin McCloud’s Happiness Architecture Beauty company) place an emphasis on their onsite waste segregation, making it clear to contractors that it is different to sites they may have worked on previously.

There is a benefit to properly segregating waste streams because it actually costs less than sending waste to landfill, to be processed at plants such as ETM Mixed Recycling Facility in Avonmouth. However, ETM also sort mixed material skips with a number of mechanical (trommels, air separation, magnets) and handpicking processes, which means they are only sending 8-9 per cent to landfill, with their new plant aiming to send zero waste to landfill.

The route to recycling for construction waste that ends up at the ETM plant in Avonmouth

Wood is just one of the materials that can be collected for reuse, and local organisation Bristol Wood Recycling Project collects wood from building sites, reusing and reselling 30 per cent of this at their facility in St Philip’s (the other 70 per cent goes to Veolia for refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and is exported to Europe for waste to energy). Founding director Ben Moss notes that materials like bricks, tiles and plasterboard often become waste due to over-ordering or damage because disposal is often easier than finding routes to reuse; around 13 per cent of products delivered to construction sites are sent directly to landfill without ever being used. “Time and space are the most valuable commodities on a building site,” he says.

Pallets are just one of the types of wood that Bristol Wood Recycling Project collect from building sites. Photo credit: Callum Burns

Households undertaking DIY or employing builders to carry out repairs and renovations have a duty of care to responsibly dispose of construction waste. At the household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) you can take one boot-load a week or six 25kg bags. Anything more is then classified as industrial waste. This limit is to stop tradespeople from depositing their waste for free.

Senior Consultant, Peter Jones at Eunomia has concerns that small traders can have “very little understanding of legislation or compliance with waste contracts”. If tradespeople take construction waste away from a household they must be registered for a higher tier waste carriers’ licence, which also applies to ‘man with a van’ services. This gives some assurance that these people won’t be fly-tipping waste, especially because if fly-tipped waste is traced back to a household, the householder is liable for a fine of up to £5,000.

Read More: The strong foundations of waste

This article is part of a six month series on waste, investigating what is happening at a local and national level and where Bristol businesses and residents can get involved to make a change.