G F Tomlinson’s commitment to reducing waste starts at the design stage, where we proactively contribute to the designing out of waste by keeping the design uncomplicated and selecting the right components and materials.
We look for standardisation on components, so that any surplus from one site can be carried over to the next, thus reducing waste. We operate a Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP) as a waste management tool on all our sites, which is based on the principles of Reduce,Reuse and Recycle.
The best environmental and cost effective solutions is to reduce the amount of waste created. Therefore, we implement the following:-
- Provide early involvement in the project to encourage designs that cause less waste to be created e.g. methodology and materials choice.
- Use standard sizes and quantities of materials and plan ahead to reduce off-cuts. Avoid over ordering.
- Arrange deliveries to match work stages (lean construction), avoiding materials being stored on site longer than necessary.
- Ensure storage areas are safe, secure and weatherproof.
- Reduce the amount of office waste disposed of through the increase of re-use and recycling of paper for internal use.
- Implementation of materials handling procedures to reduce waste and risk of spillage.
- Correct storage of materials on site to reduce waste e.g. hard surfaces, dry areas, covering of skips, clear labelling.
- Adopt greater use of IT processes to reduce the use of paper e.g. electronic invoicing, e-mail and broadband on all sites.
- Use site induction and tool box talks to raise awareness of good waste management.
- We spray jet flow restrictors on water used on site to reduce usage.
- We do not accept poor quality or damaged deliveries.
- We do not remove protective packaging from materials before they are needed.
Surplus or salvaged materials are used again for the same or new purpose. Therefore, we implement the following:-
- Collect off-cuts and use first instead of new materials.
- Co-ordinate trades so left over materials from one can be used by another.
- Fix temporary materials (e.g. timber hoarding) so they can be easily dismantled and reused many times.
- If we can not reuse materials on the same project we will aim to use on others.
- Return, sell or donate unused and salvaged materials.
- Repair items (e.g. pallets) so they can be reused and returned to the supplier.
- We look to dismantle buildings rather than knock them down to increase the amount that can be salvaged undamaged.
- Reuse water where practically possible.
- We do not reuse materials or items which are not fit for purpose.
Many materials can be recycled, some going back into making new construction products. Therefore, we implement the following:-
If materials cannot be reused, we recycle them, either via clearly identified, segregated skips on site or via controlled waste recycling companies who collect waste from our sites and recycle back at the depot. We are currently achieving in excess of 97% of our construction waste being recycled.
- We have an agreement in place with British Gypsum where they collect unused off cuts, stored in segregated skips, directly from our sites for recycling.
- We also have an agreement with Tarmac for them to take our recycled road planings for use as a secondary aggregate in the production of Black Top.
- Waste segregation for recycling e.g. plastic packaging, demolition waste, metals etc.
- We do not use a waste contractor if they cannot verify that their waste license are relevant and in date.
- We would never burn or bury waste to dispose of it.
We will only dispose of waste as a last resort in which case we categorise it into the three main types and ensure it is disposed of correctly.
- Inert waste is neither chemically or biologically reactive and will not decompose.
- Active waste will breakdown in a landfill site.
- Hazardous waste comprising of toxic chemicals, radioactive materials and/or biological waste will need to be disposed of at a controlled waste site.
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