Zero waste

Zero waste to landfill by 2012

Willmott Dixon has a target of sending zero waste to landfill by 2012. This is clearly very tough. But large financial savings on otherwise wasted materials costs and landfill tax makes it worthwhile for us and our customers.

Last year, 2010, we diverted 90.8% of waste from landfill saving £2.3m. In total, we have saved £4.7m since 2007.

High-performing sites are diverting more than 95%, evidenced across four Improvement and Efficiency South East (IESE) framework projects which averaged 96.6%. Click here for our eKPI report.

The environmental arguments are as convincing: the UK’s construction business consumes 400m tonnes of resources a year, generating more than 30% of our waste. Only 50% of this is reused or recycled. 60m tonnes are sent to landfill – but the UK will run out of space for new sites by 2018. Clearly we cannot carry on being so careless with finite natural resources.

To help bring this about, we:

  • Reduced the waste we generated from 74.4m3 per £100,000 project value in 2007 to 54m3 by 2010.
  • Required all our employees and supply chain members to hold a Construction Skills Certificate so we know they can do the job they are being paid for
  • Carried out audits of 44 waste contractors including looking at detailed site waste management plan (SWMP) data to work out how much was has been diverted. We want to make sure we work with the very best companies
  • Measured various environmental key performance indications (eKPIs) including waste since 2006
  • Introduced software called Thinkspace to helps designers comply with regulations and legislation before work starts on site. This ensures that time, costs and materials are reduced
  • Worked with the government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) since it started out. WRAP’s Halving Waste to Landfill by 2012 programme involves reporting land-filled waste, which we have done to the greatest level of detail possible
  • Are rolling out training on WRAP’s Designing out Waste tool over the Group
  • Had construction staff and Re-Thinking employees attend our "less waste, sharper design" training workshops to help boost resource efficiency on projects
  • Encouraged our supply chain to help reduce waste through training workshops we have held at our expense, targeting water and energy efficiency at the same time.

And last year we won WRAP's award for sustainable construction, the agency saying our "dedication to the cause made [us] stand out."

Reusing materials

We know there is a great t opportunity to source reused materials in construction projects as more waste is diverted from landfill.

To help develop a new market, we have a target to use 25% recycled content in an increasing percentage of projects. And to prime the supply side of the equation, we have pioneered a number of take back schemes with manufacturers which allow us to reduce defray the cost of materials which we would otherwise throw away as well as contributing materials to a burgeoning new manufacturing sector.

Agreements to take back the following materials have been set up:

  • Mineral insulation with Rockwool
  • Rigid insulation with Kingspan
  • Plastic piping
  • Vinyl flooring
  • Plasterboard with British Gypsum