Halving Waste to Landfill commitment

WRAP's Halving Waste to Landfill commitment completed at the end of 2012 and was a great success. Over 800 companies made the commitment to reduce waste, and projects with an estimated construction value in excess of £40 billion now use WRAP's procurement wording. The model wording covered waste reduction, waste recovery and greater use of recovered materials at all stages of a project: policy, preparation & design, pre-construction & construction, use and post-completion. Signatories made a simple statement of intent: “We commit to playing our part in halving the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste going to landfill by 2012. We will work to adopt and implement standards for good practice in reducing waste, recycling more, and increasing the use of recycled and recovered materials.”

Signatories took a number of steps to translate their statement of intent into action. By engaging key players in their own organisation and supply chain, signatories defined a target for waste reduction, set a baseline to measure against and embed the target within corporate policy. WRAP provided tools and good practice guidance to support implementation of the key actions required by the Commitment and helped turn a corporate target into a real outcome. „* Clients and contractors used WRAP's model procurement wording within contractual documents to ensure waste reduction was a priority from the beginning of the project. „* Designers used WRAP's Designing out Waste process and online tools to identify and quantify waste reduction opportunities. „* Waste management contractors used WRAP's Site Specific Waste Analysis Tool to provide robust waste recovery data to their clients. „* All stakeholders in a project inputed into WRAP's Site Waste Management Plan Template to track waste created and recovered. * Signatories were encouraged to register their baseline and targets within WRAP's Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal. The Portal integrated with WRAP's other tools to collect waste data from projects and allowed signatories to monitor their corporate progress. The data from the Waste to Landfill Reporting Portal formed the basis of the "Construction Commitments: Halving Waste to Landfill - Signatory Report 2011". The Commitment stimulated the discussion on construction waste throughout the supply chain and tools and guidance were developed to implement change. All parts of the construction supply chain played their part: * Clients and Developers – set procurement requirements for good practice and measurement. * Designers and Consultants – identified opportunities to reduce waste and use more recovered materials. * Contractors– implemented good practice and measure performance * SME and Specialist contractors – responded to client goals and measure performance. * Manufacturers, Suppliers and Distributors – offered low waste, recyclable and higher recycled content options. * Waste Management Contractors – collected and recovered more waste to a higher quality and provide robust data. * Sector and trade bodies – advocated setting targets and good practice and encouraged a consistent approach to measurement and annual reporting.