SustainableEngineering@Edinburgh

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SustainableEngineering@Edinburgh Plasterboard 36% Packaging 23% Cardboard 20% Insulation 10% Other 11% Group 11: Construction Waste – Suits vs. Boots By: Holly Smith (0563837); Paul Nsereko (0570117); Hamish Cullens (0563059); David Dickson (0560729)IMS3 Sustainability Module, March 2008 Social Impacts9,10 • Noise • Visual impact • Land-use: amount of public land for waste • Employment for waste transportation, recycling and dumping • Road congestion due to increased traffic What is Waste Everything can be waste: any gaseous, liquid or solid material which escapes during production and consumption Or, waste can be considered to be nothing at all, as material is eventually recycled by the ecosystem this all depends on the definition of waste. “any substance or object…which the producer or the person in possession of it discards or intends or is required to discard.”1 “...every year more than 70 million tones of construction and demolition waste has been produced in England and Wales”2 Economic Impacts9,10 • Costs increase linearly with waste transportation distance • Landfill tax (non-biodegradable costly) • On site and off site re-processing • Cost of handling and breaking up demolition waste material in preparation for disposal or recycling Designers Opinions5 Contractors are in a position to understand material inventories and to organise waste management. Consequently they do sometimes consider that we don’t understand the realities of waste management. This is a long running issue, but it is true that we know more about design and sustainabilitythan we do about construction processes,buildability and management. Environmental Impacts9,10 • Global warming due to the emissions involved in processing waste • Land fill potential to contaminate groundwater and soil • Potential to contaminate water sources • Odour and fumes • Wind blown litter in badly fenced construction sites Contractor Opinions4 The more waste designed out of the project at conception, the easier site waste management becomes for everyone involved, including us. Plus, I don’t want to compromise my margins by disclosing my waste stream data and managing waste ata higher level, especially all for the sake of thisnew ‘eco-friendly’ buzz. it is not possible to construct without a degree of waste, however we cannot solelyput the onus on the designers Number of Skips Used Per Month During House Construction Waste Streams During Various Stages of House Construction2 Number of Skips Finishing Structure Foundation Roofing Fittings Paint Month References 1The Department Of The Environment, T. S. O. (1996) Waste Management, The Duty of Care, A Code of Practice, HMSO. Environmental Protection Act 1990. Section 34: 3-5. 2 Jones, P. and R. Greenwood. (2007) Construction Waste Minimisation in Housing. Cardiff University.http://www.cf.ac.uk/archi//programmes/cost8/case/waste/constructionwaste.html. [accessed 23 January 2008] 3Department of Trade and Industry. (2004) Site Waste Management Plans, Guidance for Construction and Clients. Voluntary Code of Practise. 4Thomson, S. (2008) Sustainability Project. Correspondence Email. D. Dickson. Laing O’Rourke, Glasgow. 5Hodges, T. A. (2008) Sustainability Project. Correspondence Email. H.K.M. Smith. Mott MacDonald, Birmingham. 6Baldwin, A. N., Keys, A., Austin, S.A. (2000) Designing to Encourage Waste Minimisation in the Construction Industry. Proceedings of CIBSE National Conference, CIBSE2000, Dublin. 7Sherwood, P. T. (1997) Alternative Materials in Road Construction. London, Thomas Telford Publications. pp.124. 8Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (2007) Consultation on Site Waste Management Plans for the Construction Industry. pp.53. 9Environmental Protection Department of the Hong Kong Government. (2000) “Waste Management Implications”, Environmental Impact Assessment Report. Chapter 6.http://sc.info.gov.hk/gb/www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_0472000/EIA3_web/html/chap6.htm. [accessed 1 March 2008] 10Craighill, A. and J. C. Powell. (1999) A Lifecycle Assessment and Evaluation of Construction and Demolition Waste. The Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE): pp.49. Site Waste Management Plan Legislation3 Introduced July 2004: a Voluntary Code of practise for a Site Waste Management Plan, guidance for construction and clients Designer: the greatest savings are likely to be secured by those projects that seekto minimise waste at the design stage8 Contractor: carry out a full waste evaluation, including the types and volumes of waste that will arise, and how to deal with them Sustainability Solutions “each design decision, which is responsible for creating waste needs to be identified through the study of wastes arising before realistic designing out waste solutions are actioned”6 “Sites that use alternative materials can have considerable environmental benefits like the conservation of natural resources and restoration of valuable land for other uses”7 What has to happen? ”the issue of who is responsible for wastes arising has attracted little interest in the past. Recently, however, with the increasing costs of waste disposal, particularly to landfill, the construction industry is wakening to the opportunities of waste reduction”6 “the best management approach to waste … is to manage the process so that there is no waste to manage”6 In order to minimise construction waste effectively the ongoing relationship battle between contractors and designers needs resolving. Even if both parties are independently reducing waste, sustainable construction will not continue until they work in union.