The Government’s commitment to cut red tape has resulted in the scrapping of Site Waste Management Plans (SWMPs), although many companies and public sector regulators don’t even know the changes have taken place, says HBPW’s Jay Fox.
Jay, the firm’s Geoenvironmental Engineer, said: “If the value of a construction project was more than £300k companies were required to produce a SWMP detailing the types and quantities of waste that would be produced, recycled and disposed of over the duration of the scheme.
“However, since their implementation, uptake of the regulations has been slow with many organisations simply not producing Plans. This was despite the construction industry allocating considerable sums of money for additional training and to engage staff generally. Some companies were even established solely to prepare SWMPs.”
However, at the end of last year the SWMP regulations were scrapped as part of Whitehall’s drive to reduce bureaucracy and the associated costs of Regulation.
“The Plans were largely ineffective because the information provided was often inadequate with much of it difficult to predict with any certainty; once written such Plans were rarely updated or inspected by the Environment Agency.”
Jay said SWMPs had been better than nothing, however, there were more superior systems now in place to control waste production and promote better recycling.
“Essentially cost savings are a better motivator than any so-called ‘plan’ and, with ever increasing landfill costs, the construction industry is moving towards better waste management practices anyway. This additional layer of regulation was, in truth, unneeded.
“Ironically many businesses, and regulators including planners, are not even aware that the regulations have been axed, and are still asking for such reports to be prepared. Planning conditions are still being imposed insisting on a Plan being in place. I predict that many organisations will be asked to, or chose to, produce SWMPs on an informal basis for many years to come,” added Jay.