Concerns over construction waste code

Since the introduction of the Waste Code of Practice for the
development industry in September, not one single company has made a
declaration to the Environment Agency.



The voluntary code, which applies in England and Wales, was developed
to provide guidance on sustainable reuse of excavated soils on
construction sites without getting tangled up in waste legislation.



The code requires the company involved in the development of the
site to send a declaration to the Environment Agency before excavation
works begin to confirm that they have followed a series of steps to
assess the material that will be reused on the same site, or
transferred to a hub site that is part of a cluster.



However, although it is believed that companies are using the code
for guidance, none of them have completed this part of the process to
date.



Speaking at a London conference, Peter Witherington of the RSK
Group said: "There must be many hundreds of sites which are removing
soils out there which should technically fall under the scope of the
Code of Practice, but are not submitting declarations."



He said that he believed firms were using the code to some extent,
but found that it limited their options for reuse because it did not
cover the reuse of soils on other sites, unless they are part of a
cluster arrangement.



"My suspicion is that many companies will say 'we will follow all
the requirements of the Code of Practice but we will not submit a
declaration to the Environment Agency and say we are not following all
of your advice'," he said.



"Because [the Code of Practice] omits a fairly major area of where
people are reusing soil, people will not submit their declarations."



Jonathan Atkinson, from the Environment Agency's Groundwater and
Contaminated Land team, said: "We are looking now to do site audits on
construction sites and if they are not following the Code of Practice
and do not have Site Waste Management Plans, they could be in trouble."



CL: AIRE is helping construction firms to form cluster
arrangements, allowing them to transfer soils to other sites within the
cluster for reuse while still complying with the code. It is expected
to publish guidance on clusters in the coming months.