Wates to reduce landfill waste to zero within five years

Wates today committed to a five-year programme of waste-reduction. It has set a target of reducing the amount of non-hazardous waste it sends to landfill to zero within five years.

With the release of the Target: Zero report outlining its intentions, Wates hopes to set an example to others. It claims to be the first company within the industry to commit publicly to a zero landfill-waste target.

Construction and demolition currently create around 32% of total UK waste according to the Wates report, of which around 36 million tonnes is sent to landfill. This is approximately 9 million tonnes more than the domestic waste sent to landfill by UK households.

Chief executive Paul Drechsler argued that businesses in the construction sector can make a real difference to the current landfill crisis in the UK. He said: “Better, faster results are achievable through changing the behaviour of the 2.2 million people working in our industry than the behaviour of individual households across the UK.”

Wates is also urging the government to provide better statistical information on construction and demolition waste so that progress within the industry can be monitored. Responsibility for reporting on this lies with the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) but Wates believes that the current information is insufficient and incomplete and could be masking the true extent of the problem.

Welcoming Wates' commitment to waste reduction, Stephen Ratcliffe, chief executive of the Construction Confederation, stressed that in addition to environmental concerns, there was a strong business case for tackling the issue of waste: “Having paid for materials to be delivered it makes no sense at all to pay for them to be taken away again and disposed of through landfill.”

Wates was named one of the top 100 companies in the Business in the Community Environmental Index in 2006.

Related information

Environmental Indicators: Construction and demolition waste (Environment Agency)

RICS guides to recycling: housing construction waste, demolition construction waste and commercial construction waste.