Wetherby scoop award for recycling & waste management initiative!

Scooping the category of ‘Best Waste Management Initiative in the Commercial and Public Sector’, the award was presented in recognition of the work undertaken by the partnership to deliver zero waste to landfill on a 206 property CESP (Community Energy Savings Programme) project for Dudley Council. The project was a group collaboration between Wetherby Building Systems, E-On, Kingspan Insulation and Entec UK and proved to be a resounding success.

Wetherby Managing Director Bob Deane comments, “Phenolic insulation board ‘off-cuts’ make up a large volume of the site waste generated during external wall insulation schemes. With each full load of phenolic insulation boards delivered to site, Wetherby co-ordinated a delivery of Kingspan bulk bags which were filled with off-cut phenolic insulation at the point of installation. The bags were transported using a forklift truck to a central site storage area at the end of each day and checked by the driver for any mixed waste which would have contaminated the contents. The full bags were collected with the next delivery and returned to Kingspan, where they were shredded and compacted into fuel briquettes and used by a local cement kiln for burning as solid recovered fuel.

Across the trial period (Oct 10—Jan 11) 4.36 tonnes of phenolic board were recovered. As a high volume, low weight material this equates to approximately 21 skip loads of avoided disposal. Based on removal charges of £125 per skip (at the time of the trial) this represents avoided waste management costs of £2,625. Taking into account the charge of £150 per tonne levied by Kingspan for managing the take back of the material the net saving over the trial was £1,971. On a ‘per tonne’ basis this gives a 75% cost saving over landfill.

At the Awards for Excellence Steve Eminton, Editor of letsrecycle.com, said: “The judges were very impressed with the way that a waste material was being diverted from landfill and the carbon footprint reduced through energy recovery. It was also noted that a number of parties had come together to ensure the success of the project”.