Category 7: Waste Minimisation
Builder who demonstrates the adoption of best practice, designed to minimise waste and disposal costs, increase resource efficiency and increase profits.
The construction industry is notorious for creating rubbish and it is estimated that it is responsible for a third of all the UK’s waste. A regularly filled and emptied skip is a standard feature of most domestic building projects and recycling is often overlooked in the battle to keep a client’s home free from debris.
However, changes in legislation and financial demands mean that a growing number of construction businesses have woken up to the benefits of keeping waste to a minimum and recycling materials whenever possible.
This year’s winner of the Waste Minimisation category, English Construction, has had waste minimisation at the heart of the company since it started life in 2002.
“I’m no eco-warrior,” admits David English, director of the 11-strong company, based in Bowbrook, Shrewsbury. “The whole point of our focus on waste minimisation and recycling has always been to save us money and increase our profit margins. Of course, this also means we are reducing the waste we are sending to landfill sites too.”
English Construction’s latest project was an 18-bed extension to a care home for the elderly in Morda, Oswestry. With waste minimisation as one of the core tenets of the business, the company has become so waste-efficient that over the 18-month construction period they only filled 2 skip loads of rubbish.
David English explained that this was achieved by accurate buying, ordering small quantities of materials to arrive at the right time, and correct storage practice. This ensured that nothing sat around either unprotected or for weeks on site just waiting to be damaged or broken.
English Construction was also able to sell on the 900 tonnes of topsoil removed from the site, making money on this rather than paying to dispose of waste soil. In another example of waste-free practice, English Construction only works with suppliers who allow them to return surplus materials. They were also able to recycle all plasterboard offcuts by sending them back to the manufacturer. Their total savings on this project through waste minimisation techniques was around £18,000.
To ensure that waste minimisation remains central to all business operations, English Construction has an internal ‘waste champion’ who takes responsibility for the segregation, re-use and reduction of waste. However, the whole team are fully aware of the company’s waste policy and ambitions. “The entire team understand our drive to reduce waste and they are all really good at it,” says David English.
The company started drawing up Site Waste Management Plans long before this became law in 2008 for any project over £300,000. A Site Waste Management Plan provides a structure for systematic waste management at all stages of a project’s delivery and provides written evidence of compliance.
English Construction was the winner of the first Master Builder of the Year Award for Waste Minimisation in 2006. In assessing their entry this year, the judges said:
“English Construction continues to improve the recycling and waste practices being used by the company, and has demonstrated that continuous improvement and an ongoing commitment to waste minimisation is more important than initiating a single process.”
