I have been reading the article on Waste Management Plans in the April edition of Construction Manager.

It left me wondering where all these experts have been all these years. And are our colleagues really that bad?

My company has always been waste conscious (pennies saved make pounds) for as long as I can remember, and this is our 80th year. Yet it now seems that if we do not ‘waste’ our time and energy on paperwork instead of positive production, we are open to prosecution and criminal records. No amount of plans and records are any good unless they are read and used, but this is just for box-ticking bureaucrats.

Trying to ensure minimum waste is an attitude of mind by the actual workers at all levels, and no amount of prosecutions or fines at company level will change that. However, this is typical of our legislators’ mindset, and conveniently creates more wasteful jobs for more of them at public expense.

A carpenter does not want random lengths, but produces a cutting list from which to buy, spoilt facings become commons, off-cuts become hardcore, don’t oversupply mortar, just-in-time delivery – all this leads to efficient, waste-conscious and tidier, safer and happier sites.

Instead of producing legislation, why don’t bureaucrats make an effort to help? For instance, our local planners breathed a sigh of relief at a concrete recycling plant’s demise because of the London Airport expansion, and then refused permission for a sensibly sited replacement plant. So what do we do with it all now?

There seem to be too many people who have lost the plot.

John Carruthers FCIOB

Source

Construction Manager