"The Net Waste Tool is a powerful resource that acts as a guide from the earliest stages of design through to the construction and post-construction phases"
Dr David Moon, WRAP Programme Manager for Construction Procurement
Banbury, England, UK: WRAP has announced a new online resource it has developed for use by construction clients, designers and contractors to reduce waste disposal. The Net Waste Tool (NWT) more accurately identifies where efforts should be focused to achieve the most environmental benefit and the most substantial cost
savings, according to the government backed organisation.
NWT can be used to forecast waste arisings and identify key actions that can be taken to reduce that waste, says WRAP. Following the identification of the main sources of waste, NWT then helps to develop a waste segregation strategy and to maximise opportunities for waste recovery.
The tool calculates a series of metrics and potential savings, including the cost of materials that have been wasted; cost of waste disposal; tonnages and volumes in different waste streams; diversion from landfill; carbon impact of waste reduction and recovery; and reused and recycled content.
WRAP says that NWT has been designed as a series of web pages which allows users to securely enter information on their project and the materials they intend to use. The next stage is to analyse waste arising and recycled content, before determining the likely destination of each waste and the performance of the waste handler. NWT can estimate the likely amount of waste going to landfill.
This is essentially a system of benchmarking and measuring improvement that will be of significant value to the construction industry as it works towards halving waste to landfill by 2012, to comply with the Government’s draft Strategy for Sustainable Construction, and the Scottish Government’s goal of zero waste.
The tool offers different benefits to different user groups, according to WRAP, and can be used across the whole supply chain. Clients can evaluate performance against corporate targets across a portfolio of projects; design teams can identify key sources of construction waste at an early stage, enabling waste reduction efforts to be focused on areas that will yield the most significant cost and environmental benefits; and contractors can use the Tool to provide key elements of their SWMP (waste forecast, reduction and recovery actions, waste to landfill) using a standardised – but customisable – method and data.
Contractors can also compare forecasts against actual performance and identify opportunities to improve site practices.
Dr David Moon, WRAP Programme Manager for Construction Procurement, said:
“The Net Waste Tool is a powerful resource that acts as a guide from the earliest stages of design through to the construction and post-construction phases. Depending on the project size, within a couple of hours it should be possible to enter the main project parameters, get an initial approximation of the waste that is likely to be produced and an outline of your options for reducing that waste.”
Further information
WRAP says "the Net Waste Tool uses the same core dataset as WRAP’s existing Recycled Content Toolkit so it is only necessary to enter project information once to conduct both analyses".
The Net Waste Tool is freely accessible from the WRAP Construction website –
www.wrap.org.uk/construction.
WRAP works in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support). The organisation’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on www.wrap.org.uk .