Clients and designers must take responsibility for Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs), rather than leaving it up to the contractor, says a leading environmental consultant. James Hobson, waste management consultant in Buro Happold’s environment group, says lack of awareness of SWMPs among architects and development teams could hinder one of the fundamental objectives of the new legislation – to design out waste.

Legislation came into force in England on 6 April making it mandatory for companies involved in construction projects over £300,000 to produce an SWMP identifying how waste will be removed from the site.Hobson said: “Historically, a type of SWMP has been used voluntarily by some of the larger contractors to cut waste disposal costs. Some major clients and local authorities have also requested plans to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable development, and plans have sometimes been a planning condition.

“This means that the current focus is on reducing waste during construction, and there is a widespread misconception that mandatory SWMPs will be the responsibility of contractors.”According to Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), construction activities produce around 120 million tonnes of waste a year in the UK, of which around 65 million tonnes are recycled. A further 35 million tonnes (mainly inert excavation waste) is used for landfill engineering, quarry restoration or on exempt sites, leaving 20 million tonnes of waste being sent to landfill every year without any attempt at recovery or reuse.

The Government’s Waste Strategy for England (2007) has proposed halving the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste going to landfill by 2012, and eliminating it completely by 2020.

u www.wrap.org.uk