Rules that decide the legal definition of surplus building materials in Scotland have been altered. This means that plasterboard which complies with the right environmental policies is no longer considered waste.

The technical definition of waste may seem to be insignificant legal footnote; regarding the topic of plasterboard this could mean huge turnover and environmental savings.

It is well known that construction companies are extremely wasteful of gypsum plasterboard, with more ending up at landfill than actually being used. When sent to landfill, gympsum rots and then mixes with organic waste, which leads to a vile toxin being released and a rather unpleasant smelling gas called hydrogen sulphide.

On its own Scotland is responsible for 1,750,000 tonnes of the product going to landfill every year. Under the new legal definition when properly dealt with it can be reused either to replace virgin gypsum in new plasterboard or can be used as a cement or soil conditioner.

SEPA, Scotland’s environmental watchdog, now says that plasterboard that meets a certain standard, as laid out by the BSI PAS109:2008, it won’t count as waste, cutting down on costs and paperwork when it comes to reprocessing it.

Kenny Boag, SEPA’s head of waste policy, said: “SEPA supports the responsible processing of waste materials into high quality products as part of achieving a Zero waste society. “

“SEPA’s policies on the disposal and recovery of gypsum from plasterboard will reduce pollution from land-filling and will also facilitate the recycling of this valuable resource.”

I read with great interest an interview in the Sunday Times this weekend with actor Jeremy Irons; he stated his fears of the implications of continued population growth and the associated impacts upon the planet and its resources.

Jeremy Irons has propelled himself into a position as a green campaigner and in the course of the interview declared his ambition to produce a documentary about sustainability and waste disposal in much the same way as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. He is currently seeking a wealth of expert opinion as well as seeking appropriate funding in order to produce the documentary, before stating his ambition to hopefully make it into a movie.

On the issue itself Irons told the Sunday Times “One always returns to the fact that there are just too many of us, the population continues to rise and it’s unsustainable” before continuing to add “I think we have to find ways where we’re not having to scrap our effluent junk and are a really sustainable planet”.

This made me recall a seminar I recently attended which stated that we currently consume four planets worth of resources, clearly an unsustainable level; most will agree with Irons that it is something that requires our urgent focus as a global community.

Irons went on to discuss the need for a new economic vision as a response to the global financial crisis. “I don’t think things can ever be the same again. The next generation will have to think laterally and find ways to cope with this”.

At BuilderScrap this is something that we are well aware of, the consumptive nature of society in the western world places resources under immense strain, in recent years we have seen and heard of the pressures on resources such as fossil fuels, timber and water to mention a few. We must ask how this can be achieved without damaging the economic climate and promote green initiatives and innovations.

We also recognise that this consumptive nature must be reduced; goods and materials seem to be given much shorter life spans than necessary. In some cases in the construction industry we witness manufactured materials that are sent to landfill without ever being taken out of its packaging let alone used. Part of the economic vision must be to cut out this waste and extend the life of materials and products.

With this principle in mind Irons launched his own attack on the throwaway society “Why does it make sense for us all to be buying a lot of motor cars, selling our old ones and scrapping them? Why don’t we make cars that last for 40 years? We could”. Irons himself says he runs “very old motor cars”.

Undoubtedly examples exist across most industries, our experience at BuilderScrap predominantly within the construction industry shows that it is possible to prolong the life of building material. In the past as a society we have been too quick to throw away material and buy new, clearly a more sustainable approach means that we could extend the life of this material by reusing or recycling before disposing. BuilderScrap is a platform that exists to facilitate such behavioural changes.

Irons summed up by stating that we all need to live less decadently, a need to recycle before replacing goods and the need for wealth to spread about. He concluded “There’s a long way to go”.

Worries have been raised that amongst all the confusion of a Liberal-Conservative coalition, the fight against climate change may take a back seat on priorities. The new Government have already had different opinions on major talking points such as nuclear power, renewable energy, airport expansion and offshore oil drilling.

These worries have not been helped by the new Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, who is one of the most senior Lib Dems in the Cabinet, conceding responsibility for civil nuclear energy policy to his Tory deputy, Charles Hendry, who will now submit any potential changes in legislation through Parliament.

Prime Minister, David Cameron pledged to make the coalition the “greenest government ever” and announced that all departments must cut their carbon emissions by at least 10 per cent.

Yet an investigation by The Independent on Sunday has found that, despite his commitment to “vote blue, go green”, there are many difference between the two parties across the board with relation to environmental issues.

More concerns were expressed after the Coalition agreement published last week, while they have agreed on a number of policies there have been no targets set explicitly for reducing carbon emissions.

There was a 6% difference between the Lib Dems and Conservative’s manifesto regarding UK emissions. Lib Dems pledged a 40% reduction with the conservative only committing to 34%.

The Coalition agreement supports “measure to encourage marine energy” – which is the Tories preference. The Lib Dems want an “energy mix” including 15,000 new wind turbines, the Tories are not happy about wind power and many of the leading Conservatives have opposed wind farms near their constituencies. Mr. Cameron has now decided he wants the market to decide what they feel is the best form of low-carbon technology.

While both parties are opposed to a third runway at Heathrow, the Tories haven’t ruled out the possibility of a new airport in the South-east.

The most worrying prospect, is that of offshore drilling, the Tories in the past have let it be known they support such ventures, they have committed to renew and extend exploration and exploitation of offshore oil reserves in the document “Rebuilding Security: Conservative Energy Policy for an Uncertain World”. The report also stated they hope to open the entire coastline of Britain to potential offshore drilling.

Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth’s executive director, said: “The coalition Government must agree to cut UK emissions by at least 42 per cent by 2020. This is the minimum that scientific experts say is needed for this country to play its fair part in preventing dangerous climate change.”

According to two major trade associations CIWM and ESA, the Government has a wide range of things they need to address if they hope for waste management to work in the UK; this includes more detailed planning system, getting the finance in place, recognising the potential for energy generation and providing a clear policy framework for the future are among a number of other issues.

CIWM and ESA have both published a list at they feel are priorities and as was expected they both came out with very similar views.

A clear vision on the future of waste management is seen as pivotal for the business to have the confidence it so desperately needs to invest in the sector and a revised planning system to make delivering critical infrastructure a more realistic proposition.

They both agree that the Government needed to realise the potential value of waste as an energy source. The two were also in agreement about finance being of key importance

That’s were there common ground came to end. ESA called for ‘a floor under landfill tax rates to as a long term driver to encourage investment’ and a streamlined procurement process to cut costs for contractors and councils.

CIWM took a more direct approach, saying there was a need for ‘meaningful investment support for new and greener technologies’.

The ESA flagged up three other priority areas – clear incentives for recycling and recovery; improvements in health & safety regulation and ensuring that European directives affecting the industry are transcribed onto the UK’s law books in a timely fashion.

CIWM said it wanted to see ‘clear, strategic objectives that marry together energy, material resources, low carbon and climate change imperatives’ and a greater commitment to enforcement and combating environmental crime.

BuilderScrap is hoping that the issues that both of these companies have risen, will help convince the Government not to allow the problems to continue and instead come up with a solution so that the UK waste management systems can meet the environmental targets as well as realising the potential value of waste. Here at BuilderScrap we recognise that one man’s waste can be of value to others.

Here at BuilderScrap we’ve read a lot of strange things, but the news I read today off the guardian website was one of the more bizarre stories I’ve ever read.

A researching company has received $300,000 from Bill Gates; the money is to go on funding machines to convert sea water into microscopic particles to be sprayed into clouds, it is believed it will increase the whiteness of clouds thus increasing their ability to reflect more sunlight back into space which would lead to the reduction of global warming.

The Gates backed sea trial which if it goes ahead, will be the largest known attempt to geoengineer the climate and will be conducted over an area of 10,000km2.

It has had its fair share of opposition from campaigners, Jim Thomas from Canadian environmental campaigners said “we knew Microsoft was developing cloud applications for computers but we didn’t expect this. Bill Gates and his cloud-wrenching cronies have no right to unilaterally change our seas and skies in this way”.

In March, MPs from the Science and Technology Committee said countries should not be allowed to take unilateral action on geoengineering without consulting the UN. A report on the subject written by The Royal Society last year, warned of the dangers the unknown side-effect of such an experiment, including, change in regional weather and changes in ocean currents.

In the report there were also glimmers of promise as it does have an advantage over different forms of geoengineering due to the fact it could be stopped immediately. Within 10 days nearly all of the particles would have rained down or will have settled out of the atmosphere making the effect very short.

If this was successful it would most likely be introduced over the North and South Poles in order to slow down the increasing speed of the melting caps. It is simply a matter of the unknown. If it is successful it will be a huge step in slowing down climate change, so fingers crossed.

SMEs will be bracing themselves as Tax may rise from 17.5% to 20% under the new Conservative Government which could lead to 7,500 jobs being lost in the housing sector. Economists have predicted that the new Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his new Coalition Government will have to raise VAT in its upcoming budget.

The possible increase has caused worry amongst small to medium builders who depend on the domestic repair and maintenance sector.

Richard Diment, director general of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “The industry needs a decision like this like it needs a hole in the head. We commissioned some research by Experion in February and it showed that if VAT rose by 2.5 percentage points it would decrease demand by 2% in the housing repair and maintenance sector and cost around 7,500 jobs.

The caveat is that our industry needs sound public finances, so what we believe is that the tool the government should use is varying rates of VAT for different areas. We would argue that with the fragility of the construction industry it would benefit from a special reduced rate.”

Michael Ankers, chief executive of the Construction Products Association, said: “We would like to see a reduced rate for housing repair and maintenance, but in the current climate it seems unlikely.

We have discussed it with the Treasury in the past and they said, ‘So your want is to give people a lower rate of VAT for building a swimming pool? That’s how it would be seen.” Instead we’re focusing on sustainable products. There is already a list of those with a 5% rate of VAT and we want to update that list.”

The NFB which represents 1,300 small and medium sized contractors said increasing VAT will give “cash in hand cowboys” a much easier time of things and simply make the respectable taxpaying contractors suffer.

NFB Chief Executive Julia Evans said: “We have campaigned for many years to lower the VAT rate on domestic construction work to five per cent in order to close the cost gap that is exploited by cash-in-hand cowboy builders at the expense of reputable taxpaying businesses.

Increasing VAT will simply exacerbate the problem and inevitably drive more homeowners into the arms of rogue traders.”

So in the financial uncertainty using BuilderScrap is more crucial than ever. We can obviously help to save you costs with free or cheap materials or by the reduction of disposable costs. By using us you show your commitment to help both the community and the environment.

According to Construction News, Mark Prisk is expected to be named the Government’s new Construction Minister. It was only last week when Mr. Prisk was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Business, Innovation and skills.

For more than four and half years he held the post of Shadow Construction Minister prior to the general election.

Mr. Prisk couldn’t be more qualified for the role; he’s a Chartered Surveyor by profession. The Hertford and Stortford MP also has experience in the property and economic development markets and can also boast running his own consultancy business for 10 years on his CV.

He also gave people within the industry hope last year, when he promised the construction sector “clarity and consistency” if the Tories were elected.

Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) director Rosemary Beales said: “CECA is pleased to see that Mark Prisk will be minister responsible for construction, continuing in what was his role as a shadow minister.

Mark has a rapport with the industry and we look forward to working with him and the coalition administration, which faces a number of tough challenges including balancing spending cuts with the need to invest in infrastructure, especially transport and energy, so that it can enable a sustainable, low carbon economic recovery.

The country needs Government and the construction industry to work closely together in the coming years and we are confident Mark will respond positively to this.”

BIS declined to confirm the appointment and said an announcement on the portfolio would be made later in the week

One of the first acts Chris Huhne had in his new role as the new Environment and Climate Change Secretary was to concede to Conservative pressure to create a new generation of nuclear power stations.

Lib Dems previously had dismissed nuclear power as a way to meet UK energy needs, stating “We will say no to a new generation of nuclear power stations; nuclear power is a far more expensive way of reducing carbon emissions than promoting energy conservation and renewable power.”

Now it seems there has been a huge turn around as Chris Huhne who once called nuclear power “failed technology”, has made it clear he will not stand in the way of a new generation of nuclear power stations. He does say however that it will not be funded by the state and will be up to the nuclear industry to make the call whether or not they are able to go ahead with the plan.

Under the new coalition agreement signed last week, the Lib Dems agreed not to stand in the way of the Conservatives proposal to build new plants in order to replace our aging plants we currently have.

In the last quarter of 2009 nuclear power accounted for a 20% of the countries electricity and with all but one of them due to be closed by 2025 something has to be done to replace that loss of power generated and it has to happen fast.

Huhne also said that Britain should increase the amount of renewable energy we use. Today; tidal, wave, solar and wind power account for only 6% of our over all power used.

As we thought there will definitely have to be a certain amount of compromise when it comes to the new coalition government. It is not clear what they have managed to negotiate for this change of heart. Let’s hope they’ve only negotiated what they feel is beneficial for the country and not conceded their principals on nuclear power to have a stronger position when trying to introduce more forms of renewable energy.

BuilderScrap found this funny compelation of accidents on a variety of building sites, leave your comments.

Here at BuilderScrap we came across this funny video on YouTube, let us know what you think.