Use resources efficiently in construction and building trades

You must make sure that gypsum-containing products, such as plasterboard, are sent to the correct type of landfill site. Plasterboard waste must be separated and sent to specially-designed facilities. The cost of this is substantial so you should make sure you reduce this waste.

It's estimated that 12 per cent of all plasterboard delivered to building sites in the United Kingdom is wasted without ever being used. The reasons for this include:

• over ordering
• poor handling (on delivery and on-site shifting) causing damage to sheets
• poor on-site storage
• careless work planning, resulting in unnecessary offcuts
• failure to separate material that could be reused or recycled
• project design changes
• lack of communication between different trades and sub-contractors

Reducing the amount of plasterboard you waste will lower your costs, increase your profits, help you to become more efficient and enable you to demonstrate the quality and environmental credentials of your work to customers.

Continual improvement programme

You should work with the main contractor to cut waste production through a five-step programme:

1. Measure how much plasterboard waste is produced. Ask why plasterboard waste is being produced, how you can improve performance and what current best practice is.
2. Benchmark to identify opportunities for change. Ask what the differences are between best practice and poor practice, whether there are any obvious reasons and what is needed to adopt best practice in other areas.
3. Communicate to everyone involved where you can make improvements and what they need to do. Find out who needs to know about the changes to current practices and how they should be informed.
4. Monitor progress to reduce waste against an agreed target. Ask how you can ensure that improvements are sustained and that poor practice does not come back, and whether changes have had a detrimental impact elsewhere.
5. Improve further by doing things even better. Review progress regularly and challenge existing best practice to reduce waste even more. Ask how much progress has been made and how things can be made even better. Make sure you involve other relevant work colleagues about how you can reduce waste further.

You should then return to step one to ensure that you continue to make improvements.

Measuring plasterboard use and wastage

There are two simple methods to measure wastage:

• Plasterboard recovery, such as using take-back bags, ensures plasterboard waste will be separated out from other wastes. You can record the amount produced each month - measured by weight or by the number of bags.
• Plot-lot ordering systems involve assembling the materials required for each plot at the merchant's premises. To ensure that the correct type and amount of materials are ordered, sub-contractors have to produce a 'bill of materials' or 'take-off' for each build type.

You must help to ensure that your waste is properly dealt with - see duty of care for business waste.