This week, the Site Waste Management Plan has arrived. It's the latest in a long line of acronyms to hit the construction industry, but ignore this one and you could be fined up to £5,000 or even end up in prison, as well as being seriously out of line with industry targets.
Site Waste Management Plans came into force last Sunday (6 April) and now every site above £300,000 in value must have one.
The penalties sound draconian, but when you consider the fact that construction produces an astounding 1.45t of waste for every person in the UK every year, it's a waste mountain that clearly needs tackling. To put it into context, just imagine more than 6t of construction waste dumped in a 'standard' family's back garden each year.
More worrying is the fact that 13% of all construction materials are thrown in a skip without ever being used. Tell that to an industry outsider and they would laugh when firms complained about struggling to achieve a margin of only 2% - their immediate argument would be that reducing wastage by better procurement is a clear way to better returns, as well as providing an environmental benefit.
Government is determined to halve construction waste to landfill by 2012. SWMPs might just be the latest in a long line of government initiatives, but since most of the industry has clearly failed to tackle site waste voluntarily, it's another piece of red tape to comply with. It might not be a popular move, but products and materials are expensive - as is landfill - so getting it right should benefit both the planet and contractor's pockets.
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