Planning issues: Waste & recycling in construction

Colin McLoughlin does not like bureaucracy, and blames "pen pushers with non-jobs" for the fact that his successful recycling yard can operate on just 3ha of an 11ha site.

The chairman of General Demolition reserves particular ire for his local planning authority, which refuses to allow him to expand his operation, and has even tried unsuccessfully to close him down.

"They want us to recycle more, but the way planning works means we can't," he says, his frustration palpable.

The red-tape rot started, he feels, with the advent of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and the creation of the Environment Agency (EA). "They managed to shut a lot of the smaller yards down, largely because these little businesses didn't have the means to fill out the huge form required to conform to the new legislation. This means there are fewer yards and stuff has to be transported a lot further to be recycled."

Other contractors are less riled by regulations. "When new licensing comes in, you have to deal with it," says Mark Coleman, managing director at Coleman & Company. "We are kept well-informed by the National Federation of Demolition Contractors (NFDC), and the authorities that govern the permission also advise you of changes coming in and how to keep continuously improving. What was acceptable 30 years ago clearly is nowhere near now."

He believes that rules need to be better tailored to local needs. "Much of what is forced on the EA has come from Brussels. What suits people in France or other parts of Europe doesn't necessarily suit people in Britain, and this is also true regionally.

"For example, if you're close to Leicestershire quarries, the recycling market isn't that great, because the quarries can compete with higher volumes and lower costs. In cities like Birmingham, quarries are an hour and a half away, so it's cheaper to use recycled material."

Coleman says he has seen an increased market for recycled materials. "There are a number of reasons for this," he says. "There's more construction activity going on there's increasing environmental awareness, so people want to be seen using recycled products and of course it's cheaper in the right areas."

Everyone agrees that planning restrictions remain the most limiting form of bureaucracy, and the biggest barrier to recycling. McLoughlin says this is because, while councils will happily grant space to retailers, housebuilders and out-of-town supermarkets, there is rarely allocation in the structure plan for recycling.

"Having closed a load of yards down and built houses on them, there is no strategic plan to build more and increase capacity, even though central government is asking all businesses to increase their recycling efforts," he says.

"Even though I am already here, I'm still not in Surrey's structure plan. I had to go to the High Court in the mid-1990s to ensure the council couldn't close me down. But I'm here to stay, and hopefully we'll be able to expand our operations in the not too distant future."

McLoughlin has been lobbying the local council for a long time to be included in the plan, and is confident that this will happen in the next two years. "It's being forced on them in a way, councils can no longer landfill in the way they have been."

McLoughlin acknowledges his view is rather bleak. Others in the industry are more optimistic, although they understand his concerns. At the NFDC, they feel change is on its way.

"Getting planning permission for recycling sites is undoubtedly very difficult," says NFDC secretary Howard Button, "but I think planning restrictions will ease, it depends how brave the government is. It's certainly local bureaucracy holding it up, not national."

David Darsey, managing director of Erith, agrees. "London boroughs want recycling, but won't give planning permission for the sites. There are ever-decreasing landfill sites, and I feel the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. But national government is looking to relax it."

NFDC chairman John Wring says opposition from local residents must be sensitively tackled. "People want recycling to happen, but not on their doorstep, but it's a shame that a lot of local authorities don't look at the issue in a very futuristic way.

"They'd rather squeeze a Tesco in, partly because they contribute much more to the local authority funds. I consider planning authorities to be nothing but professional blackmailers. The message needs to come down from national government to the people making the decisions at local level."

Coleman believes greater communication with local people is the answer. "The biggest problem with planning is the interpretation of local residents. They perceive industrial recycling to be a horrible dirty industry and don't want it near their homes. It's understandable if you get a proposal through your letterbox mentioning demolition waste and asbestos, you're not going to go for it. Authorities need to make a special effort in how they package applications."

Coleman says modern recycling yards are not the open, noisy sites people imagine. "People drive past our site every day without giving it a second glance," he says. "Even when they're coming to see us, they say they were expecting to see a big pile of rubble surrounded by huge crushers. Our depot looks like a series of factories, it's very neat.

"Making recycling more palatable is possible, for example using screening, noise suppression, looking at the hours you work, and not using those extremely annoying reversing bleepers on your loading shovels."

Most demolition contractors are confident there is more recycling being done these days, despite the hurdles.

"People are genuinely cutting back on waste," believes Button. "The Landfill Tax is an incentive, and the Chancellor's aim is to get to £35/t. I think it will go considerably beyond that.

"Many of the smaller outfits have gone, it's true. Yards now have to recycle a range of materials, and do it properly and safely, which has got to be a good thing. Legislation is here, we have to live with it, and more is coming from Europe whether we like it or not. The industry should embrace it, not fight it."

Wring has some sympathy with McLoughlin's point that demolition contractors had been recycling for many years before it became government policy.

"In the past, the demolition industry was based more on reclamation, which is itself a form of sustainability," he says. "We used to strip tiles, slate, timber, bricks and beams by hand and sell them. Sustainability is just a flashy word for reclamation. Today we are told we are sustainable if, say, we crush concrete and turn it into a secondary aggregate, or separate timber, which can be woodchipped. As an industry we've been doing it for 30 years."

Coleman agrees, but says modern building standards means reclamation must be updated. "No-one wants second-hand joists any more, they're full of woodworm and not metrically sized. Recycling is key, but more sophisticated methods are needed. Everyone in demolition claims to recycle 95%, but that's by weight. Some materials, including scrap metal, brick and hardcore, have always been recycled, and are heavy.

"The challenge now is recycling the band of materials outside that, which by weight is light, but by volume can be quite significant, such as plaster, uPVC and glass." These are difficult materials to segregate. For example, there are many different types of uPVC, but windows rarely carry stickers to help determine which one the contractor is dealing with.

"We have a research and development budget and are doing trials and we will get there eventually," says Coleman. "We are also looking at using mulched wood to make building boards, but again it's consistency of materials that's the issue. This last band is a big issue. In 10 years' time it will be a different market, one that has had to learn how to process these materials."

Both General Demolition and Coleman have received funding from the Waste and Resources Action Programme to invest in new machinery. Coleman believes this is helping to drive innovation in the recycling market. "You won't get funding for just buying a crusher, it has to be specialist," he says.

"Originally we were just planning on crushing and screening at our site. We went away and looked at other methods, which is why we ended up with a washing plant. It made us enter a new area of recycling we'd never previously considered."

With planning looking likely to become less of an issue as government targets force local authorities to take action on recycling, one further barrier to progress remains: clients. "Many clients won't allow us the extra time for recycling, they want the job done and you off site in the minimum possible time, which is an absolute farce," says Wring. "That's why the government needs to intervene and ensure we are given time to recycle."

Coleman emphatically agrees. "The next big thing is for clients to really consider recycling when appointing contractors," he says. "They need to identify materials to be recycled, ensure contractors are recycling, and above all allow them the time and facilities to do it. Clearly there are a lot more construction sites than recycling sites, so the more we are able to sort and crush on site the better. But more often than not the client wants you off as soon as possible, once they look at the extra time and cost involved. It needs to be planned into whole cashflow, with more time allowed for the entire development.

"People need long-term confidence in the market to invest in these types of facilities, and clients have a big part to play. Without that, it's going to remain very difficult for contractors to take a long-term view."