Leighton Buzzard Skips

What does typical construction waste look like, and how can I dispose of it properly? We go over construction waste in detail to help you reduce, reuse and recycle.

Typical construction waste

As you can imagine, work on any construction site can generate vast amounts of construction waste that needs to be disposed of properly. This is especially true if the work involves demolishing or deconstructing buildings, generating significant amounts of demolition waste.

But given the wide range of activities that take place on construction sites, this means there is a wide variety of waste that can fall under the umbrella term of "construction waste".

These different types of waste can include things generated during the natural activity of a construction site, such as product packaging or rubble from demolition waste. Alternatively, construction waste can also be generated by over-ordering supplies and materials.

This usually occurs due to inaccurate estimates of the number of supplies required to complete the job and overordering, which further contributes to the clean-up once the job is done. 

Specific types of construction waste products, including soft and solid waste, usually created during the construction process include:

As businesses move towards more sustainable practices, the construction industry is gradually moving in the same direction. There are more options today than ever before to recycle or reuse materials that we once simply threw away.

However, despite improvements in approaches to construction waste, most of it still goes to landfill sites. Roughly one-third of all landfill waste comes from construction sites, with 13% of the materials sent to construction sites being sent directly to the landfill without ever being used.

This is not only an astonishing waste of usable products, but it is also incredibly expensive. Firstly, there are the costs of initially purchasing the wasted material.

Secondly, under the Finance Act 1996, the UK Government brought in a tax for waste disposal in landfill sites registered in the country. This Landfill Tax is another costly consequence of producing so much construction waste.

To counteract this excessive waste, construction companies have started to create Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs) before their projects start. These plans detail ways of effectively managing waste they produce and how they can dispose of it legally and safely as the work is carried out. These plans can also help you decide which materials you can reuse and recycle once the job is complete.

Part of the reusing or recycling processes for construction materials might include things such as using steel frameworks when building with concrete rather than timber frameworks.

The latter is often seen as construction waste as soon as they've been used, rather than steel frameworks which you can repurpose elsewhere. Besides this, there are other ways to further reduce the amount of waste created on construction sites.

One of these other options is to minimise the amount of packaging that comes with the products and materials you order. Either this or request that the packaging that holds your products is either made from recycled materials or widely recyclable. You can also reuse or recycle the products themselves, so long as they are in good condition.

For example, you may be able to exchange products such as window frames, roof tiles or doors for other building materials, or with other construction sites, rather than sending them to the landfill. After making these construction waste management plans and seeing which materials can be reused and recycled, whatever is left over is bound for the landfill.

However, before you send your waste off to the tip, you need to sort and classify your waste with signed waste notes and necessary paperwork, which are a legal requirement according to legislative waste codes. Some processing centres at a local level will conduct chemical and physical analysis of your waste, looking for other inert waste or hazardous substances.

However, this is much safer if you can warn the services that carry waste for you beforehand, including contractors or registered waste carriers. This allows these construction waste management services to efficiently and legally sort your materials and avoid hazardous waste. 

Types of Construction waste

As you might imagine, most construction waste is made up of the materials you'd usually find on a building site, such as concrete, bricks and wood. The vast majority of these materials will be damaged or unused during the construction project before being designated waste.

However, while most surveyors or project managers usually state that between 2% - 5% of the materials they bring in will go to waste, research has shown that this figure is closer to 15%. Of course, this will differ depending on the construction site and the project being undertaken, but whatever the project, there is always the opportunity to cut down on construction waste.

For the past thirty years, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of construction and demolition waste produced during projects. Given that the construction industry is our biggest consumer of natural resources, it may not be surprising to find that waste generation in this industry alone contributes 100 million tonnes of waste materials every year in the UK. Luckily, the UK Environment Agency has been keeping tabs on this increase in waste production.

While over 100 million tonnes of construction materials are thrown away as waste, current repurposing and recycling efforts are keeping most of this out of landfill sites. Over 90% of this waste in England and Wales is reused as aggregate, saving it from ruining our environment. Given that the construction and demolition industries are responsible for over 50% of the waste we produce, this reusing and recycling effort is incredibly important.

However, while ensuring we recycle every piece of material we can is vital to ensure our environment is healthy, the vast amount of waste produced poses other problems. From a business perspective, wasting such a large amount of material can have dire consequences on supply chains, disrupting the flow of usable goods and even contributing to inflated prices.

Therefore, it is not enough to simply repurpose the materials we don't use; more emphasis needs to be put on managing our resources and materials more sustainably from the start.  Unfortunately, there is no legislation regarding the sustainable purchase and management of materials. Most of the Environment Agency's mandates relate to the safe and responsible disposal of materials after being designated as waste.

Therefore, the responsibility falls on construction professionals, surveyors and project managers to find ways of sustainably sourcing their materials. Of course, recycling and reusing waste is always a bonus.

Recycling and disposal of Construction waste

Those in the construction and demolition industry, as with other industries, follow the Waste Management Hierarchy when deciding how to manage and dispose of their waste.

They follow this framework from top to bottom, deciding what waste can be dealt with by which methods. They descend in order of preference, with the earlier steps being more advantageous than the rest.

The steps in the Waste Hierarchy are:

This is an internationally recognised waste management methodology, allowing construction professionals to rationalise their waste and prioritise waste management effectively. Naturally, preventing waste is the best way to cut down, with waste disposal being a last resort.

There are many types of construction and demolition waste that you can widely recycle. For most construction projects, roll-off containers are used to transport the large amounts of waste produced to landfills or, preferably, recycling plants. If you have any leftover rubble, this can be crushed to provide more essential materials for other construction projects. Waste timber is also classified as recyclable waste.

How can you dispose of your rubble and building waste?

Reuse

Practically any building material can be reused for other purposes. Bricks, metal, tiles, ceramics and other materials can all be used again if they aren't too damaged.

Even if you are conducting a small DIY project, you can ask friends and family if they can use the materials you will throw away. Alternatively, you can post the materials online to see if anyone else wants to buy them.

Old bricks are particularly reusable if they are in good condition. When older or listed buildings are being renovated or repaired, original materials are needed to maintain the aesthetics and integrity of the property. Using age-appropriate materials is mandatory under conservation laws when working on listed buildings. Alternatively, there are numerous other uses for old bricks, from garden paving to barbecue areas.

There are even uses for broken materials such as bricks, ceramics, concrete slabs and general rubble produced during construction projects. Most of these can be crushed to produce usable materials for other projects.

Crushing concrete or rubble produces hard-core that can be used when constructing roads. Alternatively, you can make coarse aggregate for other projects using concrete, or it can be used as a general filler material

Recycle

Today, most packaging that construction materials, as well as the materials themselves, can be widely recycled.Waste materials such as plastic, glass and cardboard are all recycled at most processing centres.

Depending on how much of this waste your project produces, you may be able to use the local council recycling bins.

Bag it up

Once you have separated all of your waste into what can be reused or recycled, you can begin to think about transportation. If you can't transport and dispose of your waste yourself, you may consider hiring a skip or low-cost, heavy-duty waste bag for heavy materials.

Of course, you'll have to determine the size of skip or waste bag you need according to the type of waste you have, after which you can book delivery and collection dates for the skip service to take your waste away. If you are working in a built-up, urban area, you may need to place your skip or waste bag on the road. In this case, you will need to apply for a permit from the local authorities.

Call us today, and we can give advice on what would be the best-sized skip for your end of tenancy cleaning out.