Waste Management Flashcards
What are the key aspects of the RICS Professional Standard on Resource management?
Standard provides guidance for property professionals on how to make more efficient use of buildings, manage resources and reduce waste. It follows the RADAR approach which is results, approach, deployment, assess and refine.
Support on creating a structured approach, how to make the approach applicable to different professions throughout different stages of property lifecycle.
What are the key aspects of the Waste Regulations 2011?
- Relevant to England and Wales
- Requirements for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste
- This introduced the waste hierarchy
- All waste transfer notes must be signed to state the waste hierarchy has been considered
What does the Environmental Protection Act 1990 highlight?
This legislation was amended in 2021 Environmental Act. This is broken down into 7 key parts:
- Environment governance
- Waste and resource efficiency
- Air quality
- Water
- Nature and biodiversity
- Conservation covenants
What are the key goals of the UK 25 Year Environment Plan?
This was published in 2018
The plan is to ‘leave the environment in a better state than how we found it’
There were 10 environmental goals: clean air, clean and plentiful water, thriving plants and wildlife, reduced risk of harm from environment hazards, using natural resources sustainably, mitigating climate change, reducing waste, etc
Government do an annual update on the progress
What is the definition of waste?
Waste is defined as ‘any substance or object that the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard’. Discard is the key word which means even if materials have a value, or are recycled on site, they can still be classified as a waste.
What MSC do about waste?
We have the waste KPI – construction waste only, this is adjusted to inflation and edited from a 2021 performance baseline. 8.31% based on year-on-year reduction as this is in line with our scope 3 emissions
We segregate waste on site – ask Kieran what goes into our skips as construction waste.
Hot topics?
Waste transfer notes are becoming electronic in 2025. The new system will not allow you to proceed until all mandatory boxes are filled in.
What are POPs?
POPs are persistent organic pollutants. These are registered under the Stockholm Convention. This is the process of banning chemicals which can take up to 5 years per material type
What is the waste mitigation hierarchy?
- Prevention
- Re-use
- Recycling
- Recovery
- Disposal
Who defined waste? What is the definition?
The Environment Agency have defined this? If you need help on defining waste you can get an opinion from the Environment Agency which costs £125 an hour inc VAT
What are the outcomes of the Climate Action Task Group on waste?
No defined outcomes as yet but we are hoping to make a waste toolkit which will contain guidance and ‘quick wins’ for out sites
How can you design out waste?
An example is having bespoke plasterboard sizing from floor to ceiling so there are no cut offs. Also, upskilling supply chain to cut onsite sensibly rather than anywhere on the board
What is construction waste?
Any waste from the construction process
How is waste tackled on site?
We have a smart waste management plan (SWMP) which all projects fill out. This is began in pre-con were estimated quantities are entered.
We have a waste KPI
Manufacturer take back schemes are encouraged
Recycling is promoted e.g. work closely with the national community wood recycling scheme
Waste falls under SHE care
How do you dispose of hazardous waste?
- Provide a dedicated storage area
- Include signage to identify risk e.g. chemical or fire
- Pollution control measures
- Protected from rain water run off
- Disposed by licensed waste removal contractor
