Jul 24 2006
A blitz on construction waste across East and South East England could mean cash savings for construction companies, as well as preventing thousands of tonnes of material being land-filled each year.
CoRE - the Construction Resource Efficiency programme - will be launched in London on July 26. It aims to get to the heart of how construction companies, particularly smaller companies, create waste and what they can do to reduce, re-use, recycle and save thousands of pounds in Landfill Tax.
Funded by Defra and supported by regional development agencies (RDAs), with management and expertise from BRE, CoRE will bring some well-proven techniques and technologies into the battle against waste. The aim is to maximise benefits but minimise effort and costs.
If the one-year pilot programme in the East of England (EEDA), London (LDA) and South East England (SEEDA) regions is successful - in terms of at least 300 construction sites collecting data on waste and seeking to improve waste management - it could be rolled out across the other RDA regions in 2007.
Companies signing up for CoRE and demonstrating full commitment to the programme can expect a free or subsidised package of support measures which could include confidential on-site consultancy and use of BRE's online SMARTStart(TM) benchmarking software, which is normally only available under licence. All participants will be guided through the use of BREMAP, a free online geographical information system that enables users to find their nearest suppliers of reclaimed and recycled products or their nearest waste management sites.
Gilli Hobbs, Director of Resource Efficiency at BRE said: "Construction and demolition waste makes up a third of all controlled waste in the UK, about 150 million tonnes per year including waste from quarrying and manufacture of construction products. Up to 5% of construction industry turnover is consumed by waste, with around £200 million spent annually on Landfill Tax. There is huge incentive to improve waste management."
CoRE forms part of Defra's Business Resource Efficiency and Waste programme, known as BREW. The aim of BREW is to return additional landfill tax receipts from April 2005 to business in a way that supports improved resource efficiency and waste management.
The CoRE programme is designed to target construction contractors including small-to-medium sized businesses (SMEs) and to be regionally-led to ensure appropriate support is made directly available. The RDAs and BRE are working closely with Regional Champions - SmartLIFE in the East of England and the South East Centre for the Built Environment (SECBE) in the South East. The regional champion for London is Constructing Excellence.