WRAP Releases Guide on Boosting C&D Recycling

The United Kingdom-based Waste & Resources Action Programme has introduced a new to help design teams reduce the amount of construction waste sent to landfill in the UK. It is the first comprehensive guide of its kind for architects and designers.

The guide, called Designing Out Waste, is a guide for buildings projects, and aims to help architects and their clients to save costs as well as making construction projects more sustainable.

Yasser el Gabry, regional director at AEDAS commented: "Through the application of WRAP’s Designing Out Waste principles we were able to quantify the benefits of our design decisions in reducing waste. As architects we are constantly trying to balance often conflicting criteria through the design process. Everyone is keenly aware of cost criteria; certain solutions lend themselves better to passive environmental control than others, and again, this is common knowledge; WRAP’s process allowed us to also consider the implications of design on waste production and assesses them in an objective, measurable and comparable way. It can lend weight to an already strong argument or indeed be justifiable cause to review a decision."

Designing Out Waste will help design teams to identify and implement the most suitable opportunities to use resources efficiently and reduce waste at the earliest stages of a construction project where the greatest impact can be made and the greatest benefits secured. The guide provides advice on how to achieve good practice resource efficiency and cost the associated benefits, and gives an overview of the five basic principles of reducing waste through design. It has been approved by RIBA as CPD Assessed Material and been placed in the Core Curriculum under sustainable architecture and architectural design.

Mike Watson, Head of Construction at WRAP, said: "Developed in close consultation with architects, Designing Out Waste addresses the real concerns that design teams may have about their role in minimizing construction waste. It is the first comprehensive guide that architects and design teams can use to help them understand and quantify the benefits of waste reduction and to identify the best opportunities to improve resource efficiency. Our work with architectural practices on live projects across all sectors of the construction industry has proven that Designing Out Waste can help designers and their clients to secure real environmental and business benefits."

WRAP’s work with the design team for the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, a Building Schools for the Future project in Islington, identified opportunities to:

reduce waste to landfill by 18,000 metric tons; make cost savings of £303,500; and make embodied carbon savings of more than 2,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent.

Also making up its wider offer to design teams, WRAP is working with Atkins to produce a series of data sheets of construction design details which can provide better materials resource efficiency compared to standard design details. The data sheets will include technical information and quantified benefits in aspects such as carbon reduction and waste reduction. Available in summer 2009, they will also provide information on relevant standards and certification, and be supported by technical drawings and sketches.