If you’re hoping to save money on your construction project, a waste management audit is an excellent opportunity.

Mot construction companies are looking for new ways to cut costs, and a waste management audit is a great way to quantify costs and find simple savings which can deliver huge savings.

These audits involve assessing the nature, amount, and type of waste that your project is producing. They also identify how the waste is generated and managed. You can carry out an audit several times over the project’s lifetime, with the final audit happening close to its completion.

When you know exactly what waste your company is producing and how, you’ll be in a strong position to take back control of your waste management. Since waste is often a significant issue for stakeholders and clients, you’ll build credibility as you demonstrate your commitment to managing your waste. Also make sure you know how to segregate your company waste properly, companies like Reconomy, can help you with that.

Another great reason to embark on waste management auditing? The lessons you learn on one project can be carried over to future projects, and you’ll be able to give more accurate tender projections, helping you win more projects.

A waste management audit consists of a few different processes.

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Project forecasts and baseline measures

While even large construction projects no longer legally need to have prepared Site Waste Management Plans, putting one in place is still best practice and expected among leading construction companies.

Site Waste Management Plans set out a blueprint which allows the recording of the volume of waste created on each building site, along with documents detailing how that waste will be disposed of, reused, or recycled.

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A waste management audit is a key part of these plans, and you should ideally aim to set benchmarks which will allow you to measure performance. It’s also a good idea to identify your KPIs (key performance indicators) at this stage. These may include:

  • Tonnes of waste that you will have for every £100,000 worth of construction value
  • Tonnes of waste that you will have for every 100 square metres of your floor space
  • The percentage of waste that your company diverts from landfill
  • The amount of recycled content (percentage) achieved by the value of recycled materials

It’s also important for construction companies to have a good record-keeping system in place. This will allow you to keep notes of the results from all audits, including storage records, details pertaining to the waste produced, consignment notes, and all other relevant data.

By putting this in place, your project will have a head start. This means you can control your waste management from the beginning of the project. It also forces everyone involved to think about the waste management from the very beginning stages of each project.

This includes whether you’re ordering the right materials for the project, and if you have the best processes for recycling and reusing materials whenever you can.

You should also conduct your safety assessments at the same time, and ensure all staff understand the policies for the project.