Zero Waste to Landfill
WORKING TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE ZERO WASTE TO LANDFILL
FeRFA is committed to sustainable practices in the resin flooring industry and encourage all members to work towards our goal of Zero Waste to Landfill.
Below is some information to assist you to set up efficient waste management systems within your company:
Key Areas of Waste Management to Consider
Three key areas of waste management are identified below, which can assist in ensuring the success (or otherwise) of your recycling strategy:
Compliance
Is your waste management company compliant? Do they have the correct licenses, permits, exemptions and documentation? Before any waste is removed from your projects, you must be entirely confident that you have chosen a compliant service provider that can legally carry and process your wastes.
There is every chance that the wastes from your site will have to be processed at different facilities when they are collected. If you have hazardous wastes such as resins, mastics, expanding foam or even oil based paint, there may be a requirement for a specialist contract to collect them.
There is a legal requirement via the obligations of Duty of Care, for waste producers to ensure their waste is carried and processed legally. The Penalties from the relevant enforcement body (depending where you are in the UK or Ireland) for waste producers who inadvertently use non-compliant companies can be substantial.
Sustainability
Along with death and taxes, the other certainties are that landfill space will run out and Landfill Tax is going to continue to increase. With around 10-14 years of landfill capacity remaining and Landfill Tax increasing annually (currently £80 per tonne) it is vital that waste producers seek to minimise the amount of waste their waste services supplier sends to landfill.
Throughout the planning and execution stages of projects, our customers are looking to source materials and remove waste in a fashion that has as little impact on this dwindling but expensive resource as possible.
The government funded Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) has demonstrated the true cost of a “builders” skip is actually over £1,200 (and you thought £160 was a lot). Once the cost of over-ordered and damaged materials along with the costs of administering them and the labour to fill the skip have been added to the cost of skip hire, £1,200 doesn’t go very far.
Site Waste Management Plans were the bane of many Project Managers’ lives, but they brought visibility to the true cost of waste. Since the SWMP laws were repealed in December 2013, many businesses (including Countrywide Waste) have chosen to continue to use and support them.
Responsibility Deals promoted by WRAP and DEFRA (such as the Resource Efficiency Action Programme or REAP) seek to reduce the waste arising right from the design stage of projects through to the eventual deconstruction of buildings. So paying as little as possible for your skips is one thing, but there is an opportunity, through the detailed management information to reduce the quantity of waste produced in the first instance. We currently work with over 450 customers to reduce the amount of waste they produce and then to minimise the total cost of managing what is produced.
Over 96% of the waste produced by our customers is diverted from landfill. Whilst we are proud of this achievement, we continue to strive for 100%.
Reporting
There are increasing expectations that waste producers can demonstrate complete visibility of what happens to their waste. Clients want to know how much was diverted from landfill, even how much was used as fuel for power generation compared to being recycled.
Clear and accurate management information has several significant benefits to waste producers; they can identify opportunities to reduce waste production and associated costs along with demonstrating positive corporate social responsibility. Both of these can significantly increase profitability of the waste producer, either directly or by increasing the perceived added value when tendering for work.
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