Waste Minimisation
Waste Minimisation Award
Winner: Newport High School
As part of Newport City Council’s redevelopment of the City’s secondary schools, Bettws High School has been replaced with a new high quality contemporary educational facility for over 1,000 students called Newport High School. It is a symbol of civic investment engendering ownership and pride within the community. Because of its location at the heart of the community the entire team invested time to rethink and develop the design and consider the construction logistics. Reducing waste from the outset of the scheme was a primary target and it was agreed to involve the entire supply chain in conjunction with the main contractor, Leadbitters. The goal was to go beyond compliance with legislation and take a realistic review of operational methods to provide key areas for consideration.
The first step was the use of a Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP) as a tool to monitor waste production; then target the construction elements with recyclable (close up paragraph)value; review SWMP on monthly intervals to achieve Waste v Resource Action Plan as per WRAPs Best Practice guidance. The adoption of the SWMP has helped manage and reduce the amount of waste produced by construction projects and, by extension, cut what goes to landfill. Simple on-site recycling processes such as reusing the piling mat as fill below ground floor slab and then crushing demolition material for reuse has seen immediate benefits. There has been consistent reuse of surplus materials such as stockpiling topsoil; insulation off-cuts reused by masonry contractor to avoid cold-bridging; bricklayer’s waste crushed on site and reused for community projects. One of the best examples and that contributed to the community was reusing logs and managing the site clearance to create a sandpit and log sculpture.
The team has achieved its goals. Of the 24,607 cubic metres of waste created, over 24,000 cubic metres has been reused and only 67.8 cubic metres went to landfill. That’s a diversion of 24,500 cubic metres from landfill. That is a great result and testimony to the commitment of the team, and as the judges commented: ‘A good example of how construction projects should be managed.’