Construction waste
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Mrs and Little Miss Green spot some construction waste
Jack from Builder2builder contacted me last week to tell me he’d been a Zero Waste recipient and enthusiast for a long while.
In his own industry (construction) he’s be dumbfounded by the volume of waste generated. In response to this he’s recently launched a new website, which aims to promote better resource management and help reduce wasteful practices and waste itself.
Although not aimed at the general public Jack explains more about his initiative in our guest post today and explains how you can benefit as a householder.
Resource management
In a nutshell Builder2Builder Ltd primarily provides facilities to member builders to help them better manage their resources toward reducing waste and increasing their profit through four levels of membership, bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
The additional public membership gives public access to all the resources that are advertised on our site.
How this works? I will need to explain the basic system.
Bronze
Bronze level gives builders an online material stock sheet/list on which they can record their material stocks, to help them control their material resources. Those deemed surplus can, at the flick of a switch, be advertised for sale. We encourage members to review stocks and their material purchases in order to minimise waste in the first instance and monitor material on site so that surpluses can be quickly identified and placed on their B2B account for sale. The idea being that if sold from the job/building site, there will be savings from reduced handling, disposal and storage costs. We also encourage them to advertise anything and everything that is usable. A newly opened, half bag of plaster left over on a job, may go in the skip or into storage and then into a skip when it has gone off? But this could be just what is required for a repair by a member of the public, trade or builder. Our view and advice is, as a member builder or trade why not put it online, it costs no more to advertise a 100 items than 1!
Small amounts
The concept extends beyond the fact that many builders and all associated trades and the public need small quantities of materials for smaller works, repairs, maintenance and making good. Apart from being able to source these smaller quantities at reduced rates, it also provides a wanted facility for builders to add items they have difficulty sourcing.
Small jobs
These surplus materials, tools, plant and wanted are available to the public to view but in order to obtain the sellers details they need to register. For a £5 payment access is provided to all items available on the site for one month. So where someone may be planning a job they can browse the materials and items that are available and having identified what they want on the site, register and obtain the contact details. There are many bargains on line such as complete toilet suites, basins, shower trays, doors, electrical items etc plus much more, used and unused all available at reduced rates.
Silver
Silver level gives builder members the facility to advertise either their business or plant and tools that they may have available for sale or hire. Business adverts are available for everyone to see including the Public. This is a very inexpensive advertising medium which we consider helps promote “Green” Builders . Plant and Tool adverts are available to browse, with the same access requirement as materials, so for a member of the public registering this gives access to these items as well.
Gold
Gold level is both silver options and Platinum, which is available very soon, will give builders access to a unique tool designed to allow builders and associated trades to estimate waste materials and packaging specifically for any item of work or project, before even being on site, in line with new government Site Waste Management Regulations.
Construction waste
The goal for our site is for it to become the premier site for managing construction surpluses, providing members with an open forum where questions can be placed and also a general up to date advice centre in all associated matters with links to facilities and associated sites for anyone to use, toward promoting ever better levels of Construction Waste Management.
It’s not waste!
It is my view that much of what ends up as “Waste” does so because it simply has not been used! Not because it cannot or could not be used. This could be for a multitude of reasons but the main one in our industry is that, a use or user is not available, prior to the item becoming “waste”. Our sites aim is to bring together surpluses and users before this happens and the public can play a huge part in this and in turn get great benefits. Cheaper items and reduced waste not to mention other benefits to the environment in general.
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Tags: construction
Thats great news!! What a fantastic resourse!
My husband worked for a timber merchant for a while (very happy to be out!!) and so saw a lot of what went on in the bulding trade. The worst thing he saw were a couple who brought a house and wanted to pull up the old floor and lay hardwood (Boooo!!) flooring. They where told though that because the home had only recently been finished they would have to wait for a couple of months for the house to settle before laying this wood. So, instead of living with the old (that is 2 months old!! layed by the construction company!!) they ripped it up, skipped it, layed NEW laminate flooring and then a few months later ripped THAT up and skipped THAT!
A lot of new houses go up near me and new owners are often folled by skips as they rip out the bathroom and/or kitchen that hasn’t even been used so they can put in a diffrent one 🙁
@Kelly Basford: Oh my, the family you talk about – I can’t believe that. So much upheaval to live with, let alone the waste. That really is shocking. True about the bathrooms / kitchens too. We are so wasteful…
The Ecobuild exhibition has been on my to-do list for several years. I intend to make a big effort to go this year. I think we need to find out more about how we can improve the insulation and waste loss of our old housing stock in this country. If more of us knew how to do this in a way we were happy with then perhaps we wouldn’t have to worry about those energy bills so much or energy from waste.
http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/
@Jane: I think the one thing people miss is that the most important home improvement you can do is to get maximum insulation. lots of people look at changing their heating or upgrading their boilers, but they are still allowing heat to escape through the walls and roof. let us know if you go! Sounds really interesting.
Yes, insulating old homes so as not to lose their charm. LB Camden had a project for a low energy Victorian House. http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/environment/events-and-initiatives/twocolumn/low-energy-victorian-house-towards-zero-carbon-dwellings.en