Birmingham firm targets saving all building waste from landfill
Mar 11 2009 by Anna Blackaby, Birmingham Post
A Birmingham waste management firm has said it believes it is possible to recover all waste from building sites.
Premier Waste UK has joined WRAP’s (Waste & Resources Action Programme) Halving Waste to Landfill agreement, a voluntary framework devised to work towards cutting by 50 per cent the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste sent to landfill by 2012.
The target, adopted in the Strategy for Sustainable Construction launched last year, is viewed as being both environmentally and financially critical due to restricted landfill capacity and the increasing costs of waste disposal.
Established in 1988, Premier Waste employs 67 people and draws on innovative processes and technology which enable it to divert almost 98 per cent of its clients’ waste from landfill.
The company intends to increase this figure during 2009, setting itself the target of recovering all the waste it collects from clients and sending nothing to landfill.
Premier Waste operations director Wayne Clark said signing up to WRAP’s agreement was an important step for the business and helped to show its commitment to best practice and differentiate them in the eyes of their clients.
He explained: “We’ve been banging the waste recovery drum for the past seven or eight years, so we were really pleased when we saw that WRAP was launching a framework to help the industry work together more closely and push the boundaries of what can be achieved.
“Disposal of waste to landfill is becoming an increasingly expensive option, so recovering waste in ever greater amounts is really the only sustainable answer in the long term – from both an economic and environmental perspective.
“We’ll be working to increase our diversion rate to 100 per cent this year and think this is an extremely realistic target.”
WRAP materials recycling programme manager Mike Falconer Hall said: “When we consulted the construction industry ahead of launching the Halving Waste to Landfill agreement, the feedback from the majority of contractors was that they could most probably achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the waste sent to landfill from their construction sites – but only if their waste contractor partners were committed to the target as well.
“We’re therefore extremely pleased to see Premier Waste UK has signed up to the Halving Waste to Landfill agreement and we look forward to more waste management contractors signing up.
“As waste disposal becomes a more costly process for construction clients, the waste contractors who can show they are taking a proactive position on improving recovery rates are the ones who will benefit most.”
Since the scheme was launched in October last year, more than 40 organisations have signed up to WRAP’s voluntary agreement – including leading clients, developers and contractors such as Land Securities, Defence Estates, retail company ASDA, Bovis Lend Lease and Laing O’Rourke.
