Get a process in place to establish and monitor how much waste is going to landfill. Effective data collection is essential to make informed waste predictions – a requirement for all Site Waste Management Plans.

As a result of Willmott Dixon’s system for collating data and monitoring its waste it has been able to divert 72.2% of waste leaving site from landfill.*

Make sure your supply chain has the right systems in place for managing waste.

On investigating a waste services provider, Willmott Dixon found that although the contractor had advised that all timber was recycled, the visit uncovered that the timber was actually going to landfill. Willmott Dixon has now implemented a detailed waste audit that is carried out before a waste contractor can be used.

Last year its Cobham region management trainees visited a number of waste management contractors, to understand
the importance of knowing where waste is going, and the different performance between contractors.

Encourage your supply chain to come
forward with new ideas on how things
could be done more effectively.

Brockville, one of Willmott Dixon’s
painting contractors came to them with details of Crown’s paint tin recycling initiative, where Crown would pick up the empty paint tins from sites, and then take them to be recycled, producing a plastic material that can be used to produce street furniture. This idea was trialled at the Epsom Grandstand project, and Willmott Dixon are currently awaiting delivery of a bench that has been produced out of the paint tins!

On site segregation is key to reducing waste, as it makes waste very visible and instigates behaviour change.

By segregating plasterboard waste it
becomes very clear if offcuts that could be reused are being disposed off. At Willmott Dixon’s Haringey 6th Form Project, its waste management contractor Focus Environmental implemented a system of stacking offcuts close to the workforce, enabling the offcuts to then be easily selected and used, rather than a new board being cut. This resulted in plasterboard representing only 20% of the waste from site, compared to the 30-40% industry average for college projects.

Ensure you explore all options for reusing/recycling any waste material, rather than sending it straight to landfill.

Old vinyl removed from Marks & Spencer’s Bournemouth store was recycled and went back into the new vinyl flooring that had 20% recycled content. The rest was used in traffic cone bases!