Construction Waste Management Plan: What You Need to Know

Whether you’re doing renovations on your property or you’re a part of a construction company building an entirely new structure, you will inevitably generate waste. Even the smallest construction project will generate too much waste for your local rubbish removal service to handle, prompting you to hire waste skips.

The typically large amount of rubbish any construction project generates is also one of the reasons you need to have a waste management plan in place. Site waste management plans (SWMPs) help reduce the amount of construction waste your building project produces by managing how materials can be reused, recycled or disposed of.

With the UK having generated 66.2 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste in 2016, a trend that has been continuously increasing since 2012, having SWMPs in place is vital, especially if you want to contribute to the zero (or, at least minimised) waste movement.

Apart from reducing waste, there are other reasons you should consider putting SWMPs in place in every construction project you’re undertaking:

1. Complying with County Codes

Health and hazard codes in each city or county exist to protect people from being exposed to dangerous conditions. The rubbish generated during constructions projects can be toxic and/or safety hazards. With proper waste management, you can prevent situations in which your construction materials become hazardous for you, your workers or the other people residing and working in and around your site’s general area.

2. Protecting Yourself and Your Workers

Waste materials accumulating around your site can quickly compromise workers’ safety. To work effectively and safely, you need clear and workable spaces in which to move around and perform your job. The constant use of heavy equipment, like tractors, dump trucks and loaders while also having to navigate around piles of construction waste is an accident waiting to happen. If you have a solid SWMP in place, you can keep your worksite, especially in high-traffic areas, free from safety hazards stemming from construction waste.

Creating Your Waste Management Plans

From 2008 to 2013, the SWMP Regulation was compulsory, as such, there were guidelines that clients and contractors followed. The regulation, however, was repealed at the end of 2013, and efforts at SWMP are not only a responsible initiative.

If you want to create and enforce SWMP on your construction project, remember that it must:

• Identify the client, the principal contractor, the person or company responsible for dealing with waste and the person who drafted the SWMP.
• Describe the proposed construction work, including the site’s location, as well as the estimated cost of the project.

An SWMP should also have a description of each type of waste expected to be produced over the course of construction and the estimated quantity of each waste type. There must also be information on how each type of waste will be managed, such as through reusing, recycling, recovery or disposal.

Both the principal contractor and the project client should state that reasonable steps will be taken to ensure that the waste from the construction site will be dealt with and handled efficiently.

Effectively Manage Construction Waste with LKM Recycling

As one of the UK’s leading total waste management solutions companies, LKM Recycling is your partner for efficient and effective construction waste management. Whether you belong with a large enterprise or are a private resident with renovation projects on the way or are part of a small- to medium-sized business, our innovative waste management solutions are here to help you.

For more information on our services, contact us today.