Reducing waste and pollution

Waste minimisation and waste management are, in effect, governed by the three "R"s - reduce, reuse and recycle:

• reduce the quantity of materials sourced for a building through efficient and accurate design (for example reduce the quantity used and the quantity wasted);
• reuse old materials already available on the site;
• recycle by segregating waste and dispatching to recyclers and by sourcing materials which are recycled and recyclable. Unwanted furniture in good condition can also be donated to furniture recycling projects that redistribute them.

A win-win situation
The wider benefits of waste minimisation are clear: reduced need to extract and process raw materials and reduced quantities of waste to landfill. The developer gains, by using and wasting less material, therefore paying for less and avoiding the costs of landfill - transport, landfill operator costs and landfill tax.

Waste management plans
By taking the decision to reuse an existing building rather than constructing a new one, the quantities of waste generated are vastly reduced. But there is still more work to do.

A sustainability refurbishment project will emphasise waste minimisation and management during the refurbishment. Also, the layout should facilitate the segregation, storage and recycling of waste by occupants and operators.

A few basic points to consider in a waste management plan:

• design waste out of the system - specify parts that generate a minimum of on-site waste or that are prefabricated from a well controlled factory;
• negotiate returnable packaging materials with suppliers;
• carefully segregate materials before they join the general waste stream;
• research the local market for your waste materials.

Even when the economics aren't particularly attractive, it may be better than paying to transport and landfill the material.

Reduce and reuse
Re-use existing materials: this limits the quantity purchased and having to be transported to and from the site. Items we re-used included the building, obviously, and much of its contents.

The building was stripped out with care and any usable material was stored in a container brought to the site especially for the purpose. Items reused included:

• complete kitchen units, including worktops, carcasses, doors, sinks and taps;
• doors;
• architrave and skirting boards;
• carpet tiles;
• electric sockets and light switches.

In addition, working with Ogilvie Ross (winners of The Eventful Scotland Award for Environmental Innovation 2005, for its work with Perth and Kinross Council's furniture re-use strategy), the purchase of new furniture was minimised through the re-use and refurbishment of all furniture in the Aberfeldy office.

Recycle
Segregation is the key to a good recycling strategy on a construction site. At WWF Scotland's Dunkeld office, the main contractor and the waste contractor discussed the optimal strategy for the various phases of the project. In the early phases, this involved three separate skips. Later, when much less waste was coming off-site, all went into a single skip and this was later sorted at the waste contractor's depot.

Much construction and demolition waste can be recycled. For instance:

• metal - including copper from wiring, plumbing and hot water tanks;
• bricks and stones in good condition; otherwise, along with concrete, they can be crushed for use as an aggregate in construction or civil engineering projects;
• wood can be chipped for use at chipboard factories;
• packaging waste.

Other materials are still difficult to recycle. There are no mature markets for recycling flat glass or plasterboard, for instance. It still pays to separate plasterboard, however, as regulations require it to be treated as hazardous waste at higher cost: it is better to pay for a quarter of a skip of pure plasterboard than for a full skip of mixed waste including some plasterboard.

Use of recycled and recyclable material was also part of the strategy for increasing resource efficiency.

Waste is a real problem for the construction industry, and for society. Construction materials typically fill over 20 per cent of landfill space - a resource which will become increasingly scarce, and expensive, as communities mobilise to oppose landfill operations in their locale. Once landfilled, materials are effectively unrecoverable.