A Note on Construction Waste

As you may well know, at Croft we do our fair share of building work ourselves! Through this, in the past couple of weeks, we have again become very aware of a massive issue in our industry - Construction Waste.

In an age when we are all aware of using less plastic and trying to recycle our household waste, construction waste is a massive issue. 

In the past 2 weeks, without specifically looking, we have picked up over £500 worth of insulation, that will go a long way towards insulating the ground floor slab on one of our self-build projects!
This material, which is all of a chemical composition which would take at least 500 years to degrade and is extremely harmful to wildlife, for a material that would have never have fulfilled its purpose. Not only is this very damaging environmentally, but it is also a waste of money for the client who will have paid for it!

This kind of construction waste is happening on a huge scale, on most building projects. 

To minimise this impact there are 3 ways which can help.

• Do not massively over order materials: whilst it is most common to add on at least 10% to a material order, carefully quantifying materials can reduce construction cost and waste.
• Participate in material take-back schemes where possible: many big manufacturers and suppliers offer take-back schemes to re-use waste material.
• Try to avoid using materials which will be difficult/damaging to deal with at the end of their life: Chemical and plastics based products are the most common offenders, and can often be replaced with natural alternatives, which help reduce waste but also make for healthier buildings to live in.​

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