Construction and Demolition Waste

More than 50% of waste sent to landfill in this area is generated from construction and demolition whereas only 25% is municipal waste including household waste. 

Reducing construction and demolition waste could significantly impact upon the amount of land required for landfill.

Planning Document on Construction and Demolition Waste

East Sussex County Council has adopted a Supplementary Planning Document on Construction and Demolition Waste and all local authorities in East Sussex have agreed to implement the measures set out in the document.

The main points are:

• All applications for developments of over 5 houses of flats or 500m2 built development area will need to be accompanied by a ‘Site Waste Management Plan’ (SWMP)
• All applications for smaller developments will require a ‘Waste Minimisation Statement’

Waste Management Plan

The Waste Management Plan should identify all the types of waste and the amounts that will be generated from a development and clearly show they will be disposed of. 

The plan should aim to minimise the amount of waste being simply disposed of, and maximise:

• The reduction of waste (for example by taking measures to avoid over ordering)
• Re-use and reprocessing on site (for example reusing soil moved from one part of the site elsewhere on the site or the reuse of materials taken from a building demolished on site)
• Re-use and reprocessing off site (for example selling materials to a salvage yard)
• Recycling (for example sending packaging from deliveries and paper from the site office for recycling)
• Recovery (for example sending timber off cuts to be reprocessed into fuel)

A Waste Minimisation Statement should cover the same issues, but in less detail.

A key point is to sort waste materials before they leave site, one stray tub of adhesive or length of treated timber in a skip could mean that it all has to be dealt with as hazardous waste rather than being recycled.