How to reduce your construction waste

If you’re in the building business, reducing your construction waste makes good financial sense and helps reduce the millions of tonnes of material currently going to landfill. Find out more about the importance of waste management in construction.

The construction industry is responsible for a third of the UK’s waste. While 85% of this material is reused, recycled, or sent for energy recovery, around 13 million tonnes of construction waste is still sent to landfill, including almost 10 million tonnes of soil and stones.

Businesses, which take active steps to reduce the 80 million-plus tonnes of waste produced by the construction trade each year can stay one step ahead of the competition – by cutting their own disposal costs at the same time as helping clients reduce their carbon footprint.

Much of the debate on climate change centres around achieving net zero carbon emissions. Whether the same net zero effect could be reached when it comes to landfill waste is a difficult question, especially for the construction industry.

However, there are plenty of practical changes you can make now, to reduce the amount of waste material you end up putting in a skip. With a good waste management procedure for your construction site in place, you will be able to cut your hire costs and help the planet into the bargain:

Don’t over-order

Any business that is serious about cutting the amount of construction waste needs to start with the materials that are delivered to site.  Don’t over order construction materials. While bulk purchasing can offer big cost savings, these can be wiped out if a company ends up paying to either dispose of or store unused materials.

Always return unwanted items

If materials are left over at the end of a contract, arrange to sell them back to the supplier or set up a sale or return-style purchasing agreement in the first place. Always return faulty, unwanted or wrongly-sized materials to the supplier.

Get the timing right

Organise your deliveries to the site in line with the construction timetable to make sure your building materials aren’t waiting around too long, becoming damaged in storage.

Work off-site

By prefabricating materials off-site, a construction project’s carbon footprint will be reduced because the amount of on-site waste produced will shrink.

Watch the packaging

Source materials with less packaging and opt for packaging which is recyclable – cardboard rather than plastic. Try to write this into your supplier agreement. Also ask suppliers to collect and reuse their packaging.

Reuse and recycle

Look for ways to reuse your materials where possible, otherwise try and recycle. There are many materials which can be recycled, including glass, steel, wood, concrete, cardboard, paper and asphalt. Be careful with your construction site waste segregation – sort materials that can be sold on, such as scrap metal or virgin wood.

It’s all in the planning

When drawing up architects’ plans, stick to standard sizes and shapes to avoid off-cuts or small amounts of extra materials being needed.

Love your leftovers

Keep off-cuts out of a skip. You never know when you might need a small piece of a certain material.

Go for quality

Use high quality timber. Although it is often more expensive, it will have better yield (saving time and money).

Be careful with cables

Electricians should use standard instead of armoured cable inside buildings to reduce the cable weight and the number of support fittings needed. They should also keep termination tails to a minimum.

Did you know?

About 70% of the content of most skips is actually air. By packing a skip well, you can reduce the number of loads a construction project will require and save on hire costs.

Understanding the importance of waste management in construction isn’t just about reducing the number of skips used during a project. Knowledge of where your waste goes and what happens to it can improve your employees’ motivation to increase recycling rates, reducing your disposal costs and giving you a real business advantage.

The key is to always make sure you’re well prepared prior to every new construction project you take on – and that your team members know how to work together to minimise construction waste.

What is construction waste?

Construction waste is a term for all the materials left over or generated by a construction project.

How to dispose construction waste

You can dispose of most construction waste by hiring skips of the right dimensions to collect your waste. Many skip hire firms will sort construction waste into items which can be recycled and those which will go to landfill. Construction companies can also take waste to the local authority reuse and recycling centre, if they have the necessary licences.

Why is minimising construction waste important?

Minimising waste is important because a large percentage of the material going to landfill sites is construction waste. Space at landfill sites is running out and it is better for the planet’s natural resources if we can reuse materials rather than constantly creating new ones. Minimising construction waste also makes good business sense, saving on disposal and purchasing costs.