Our BuilderScrap website, for the construction industry in Wales to trade waste materials usually destined for landfill sites will go live in November.

BuilderScrap is an online way for the construction supply chain to manage its surplus materials builders and others tradesmen can access www.BuilderScrap.com and offer their surplus bricks, timber or other materials online and then be matched to potential buyers of the materials.

Our online materials and recycling exchange platform is being supported by Constructing Excellence in Wales (CEW) as part of an initiative to support the Welsh Assembly Government to reach targets regarding minimising waste and improve recycling in construction and demolition.

CEW estimate that 14% of all construction waste is made up from new materials that are simply thrown away on site.

Our BuilderScrap team is now working with the CEW waste programme team to develop a version of the platform specifically for the Welsh construction industry.

Karin Black, waste strategy adviser for the Welsh Assembly Government, said: “The rhetoric about waste reduction has gained momentum in recent years, but real alternatives have relied largely on the commitment of individual contractors and educated clients.”

“The agreement with CEW to take up the challenge of supporting a significant diversion of materials from landfill by deploying the BuilderScrap materials reuse platform is a major step in the right direction. This is the first government-backed initiative of its type in the UK and is pivotal to CEW’s ongoing strategy to reduce the waste generated by the construction industry.”

Paul Jennings, director of CEW, said: “The issue of waste in the construction industry is now so serious that to not take action and simply try to talk the industry around is no longer acceptable. We are running out of landfill space at an alarming rate and jeopardising the environment by wasting construction materials that could be used elsewhere. It is a win-win scenario that should be welcomed by all the stakeholders in the industry.”

Our very own Brendon Kenny BuilderScrap said: “We have seen a change in attitudes to how construction materials can be reused by others involved in building projects since the launch of BuilderScrap. With the launch of the CEW platform, it serves as a further validation that this initiative can play a pivotal part of an overall waste management strategy.”

We have all stayed at rubbish hotels but this one is a little different, it’s a hotel made entirely out of rubbish.

The hotel is made up of approximately twelve tonnes of rubbish collected from Europe’s beaches. It has been built as an artistic method of raising awareness about the throwaway culture that we live in and to highlight the coastline’s worrying levels of pollution.

The hotel is located in the world famous tourist city of Rome and has been created by German artist HA Schult. The distinguished guest list of the hotel includes eco-warrior and Danish fashion model Helena Christensen.

Whilst this may be seen as a bit of fun by some, there is a very serious underlying message that we are ignorant about rubbish and resources. We currently consume far beyond the earths capacity of resources and at some point something must give.

To some extent the increased awareness of recycling has largely determined that our throw away lifestyles can be maintained safe in the knowledge that rubbish will be recycled. This fails to address the true underlying problems and the need to reduce our rubbish, where this is not possible then reuse should be preferential to recycling.

This is a value that BuilderScrap can assist with in relation to construction materials, we are always seeking to maximise the life cycle of products and resources by providing a platform to do so.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that we do everything we can to reduce the amount of consumption that we are currently inflicting on our planet, after all the earths resources are finite.

The Labour government’s green school programme has now been scrapped by the coalition, but one school which was built under then the scheme was given the highest BREEAM rating ever for a school. Rogiet Primary School in Monmothshire was recognised as a key example of sustainability and achieved a staggering 78.18% score.

The one-storey timber frame school has 210 pupils and staff, has landscaped grounds and an outside area for sports and play time. This sustainable construction was regarded as of high importance to the former government, not only for reducing carbon emissions and using green building materials but also educating young people for a future of sustainable living.

Throughout the construction, pupils were given the chance to learn about the principles of sustainability, including insulation and what were the best regarding the buildings materials that were used during the process.

Neal Stephens, of construction company Willmott Dixon, who built the school in partnership with architect White Design, commented “The early collaboration of pupils, teachers and the community as a whole was an essential element of the building process and one that went on to reap numerous rewards. The sourcing of environmentally friendly products such as Warmcel Insulation was just one of many innovative ways in which we were able to demonstrate how construction can be sustainable, while creating a learning environment with a low carbon footprint – or in the case of Warmcel, a below zero carbon footprint!”

Other key sustainability features used in the school included:
• Single storey plan with high levels of natural daylight in all areas.
• Timber frame using responsibly sourced timber.
• Natural ventilation using both manually and automatically actuated windows, roof lights and vents to ensure good ventilation rates and thermal comfort.
• Landscape design and planting that increased both educational benefits for the school and biodiversity enhancement of the site.
• Rainwater harvesting tanks that recycle rainwater for use in the school.
• Wind turbine that creates renewable energy for the school.

Derek Downer, Head of Property Services, Monmouthshire County Council concludes “BREEAM set the standards to aim for and encouraged the site team to interact with the school in developing sustainability as an embedded culture, thus encouraging future generations to live sustainably.”

We at BuilderScrap are very impressed with this project and think it was made possible by following a few simple rules; intelligent purchasing of building supply, the use of recycled materials and obviously making sure all surplus building materials go on BuilderScrap.com.

Les Owens, Managing Director of BuilderScrap and a committee representative for the Merseyside Innovation Awards speak on BBC Merseyside.

BuilderScrap are a finalist for the prestigious award.

Click the link below to listen to the interview which was on BBC Merseyside this morning.

http://www.merseysideinnovationawards.co.uk/

Within the next 2 years there will be an offshore turbine constructed just off the coast of Britain and it will be about 500ft tall with a diameter of 475ft.

The mammoth 10 megawatt machine, dubbed Britannia, may become a growing trend says the project leader Bill Grainger.

He doesn’t see a reason why offshore turbines should not get evener larger, as the larger they are, the more power it creates which makes economic sense.

Mr Grainger, who heads the Britannia design team, told The Engineer magazine: ”There isn’t a technical issue that screams out size limit.

”You have to make changes as you get bigger. Blades get floppier, for example, so you have to put more carbon in, but we aren’t anywhere near 100% carbon yet.”

The Britannia turbine is being built in Blyth, Northumberland, will have 3 enormous blades which will each weigh more than 30 tonnes. The circumference of the blades will be 100ft wider than the London eye. The most likely location for Britannia is Dogger Bank, just off the north-east coast.

The turbine will rise 574ft above the waves and will generate enough electricity to power 10,000 homes. Over its lifetime could replace 2 million barrels of oil.

Clipper Windpower Marine is splashing out with £44 million for the turbine’s building facilities, including a blade factory in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There will also be £5 million contributed from the local regional development agency.

Mr. Grainger did say, ”There might be a limit to the size that people want to put into the field; if a 20 megawatt turbine failed, that’s a big chunk of electricity to lose. But then, if a power station goes off-line you’ve lost 300 megawatts, so I don’t think that’s a limit either”

”They’ll get bigger than 10 megawatts, is my feeling. How much bigger? I don’t know.”

The Welsh Assembly Government set out plans to create a zero-waste society.

Welsh environment minister Jane Davidson spoke about the countries new waste strategy “Towards Zero Waste”.

While the minister was eager to show she was ‘broadly supportive’ of methods that get results, she made it clear that Welsh would not go down the route of punishing or rewarding those involved in the programme.

She completely ruled out copying schemes like Recycle-Bank which looks likely to be used across London after being supported by Mayor Boris Johnson and his waste advisor Isobel Dedring

Ms Davidson said: “In England the focus is on how to make people recycle more – in Wales we recognise it’s more important to stop this waste in the first place.”

“We believe that our plans – including separate food waste collections and smaller bins – will do this.”

“Costly measures like those adopted in England, such as retaining a weekly bin collection or rewarding people for throwing more recyclable rubbish away, won’t.”

Welsh targets will aim for at least 70% of waste recycled by 2025 and cut carbon by 27%.

The Welsh minister said Wales has risen its recycling more than any other country in the UK, with an increase of 30% in the past decade beating England who has only managed a 25% increase.

Wales also were the first in the UK to introduce Landfill Allowance Scheme and have passed every target set out under it.

BuilderScrap supports the Welsh waste strategy!

A report from the Centre for Alternative Technology concludes that a massive expansion in offshore wind, a switch to electric vehicles and steps to halve household energy demand would make the country “zero-carbon” by the end of the next decade and without the need to rely on nuclear power.

The study said energy demand in buildings could be halved if changes such as; improved insulation, eliminating draughts and improving the efficiency of heating technology came in to effect.

It will need “whole house” refurbishment to upgrade energy efficiency and for new homes to be built from natural materials such as wood and straw to lock in carbon in an effort to cut overall emissions.

The report also said there should be a switch to electric vehicles, which would generate 50% less carbon dioxide than petrol or diesel cars.

As the grid is “decarbonised”, electrical vehicles will be even more environmentally friendly, however this will raise a huge demand for electricity, so, “smart charging” will be introduced in which they are charged up overnight when power demand is low – which will limit the extra pressure on the grid.

Domestic flights would be replaced with bus or rail travel, with fewer journeys taken overall.

After looking through some of the previous blogs I decided to write one that relates to how we can reduce the pollution in our cities and ultimately the global production of greenhouse gases. I came across several different methods in which a car can use hydrogen as a full or partial fuel and they all have there pro’s and cons.

The first is the more obvious and seemingly more popular one. The fuel cell has been around for a long time the principal was published in 1838 by Christian Friedrich Schönbein and was quickly taken up by Sir William Robert Grove, who in February 1839 invented the first fuel cell using very similar materials to the one’s we use today.

Cars today that use fuel cells have some catching up to do before they become a good replacement for the modern combustion engine. The efficiency of fuel cells has already been proven, between 2002 and 2007 several buses and taxi’s using fuel cells as a power source were driven around London. It is expected that by making the switch we could cut our greenhouse emissions by half.

Another option is using hydrogen as a direct fuel in other words replacing petrol and diesel with cars that burn hydrogen instead, you lose some of the efficiency from using a fuel cell but you get much more power (280hp) as apposed to the equivalent fuel cell (80hp). Right now it is unknown which one will win over but in the mean time it looks like the petrol and diesel engines will hang around till approximately 2030.

Another option which I recently found is instead of introducing fully hydrogen cars immediately, hydrogen can be generated on the go using only distilled water and electrolyte. While researching I came across a petrol/diesel and hydrogen hybrid system which can be attached to almost any car which still burns petrol/diesel but at a reduced rate. It does this by instead of burning air and fossil fuel it burns air, petrol/diesel, pure oxygen and hydrogen.

The system attaches directly to your air intake and tricks the car into thinking less air is going into the engine so the car then puts in less fuel. Hydrogen and oxygen produced from the hybrid system are fed into the engine through the air intake and the car benefits from burning a cleaner fuel along with a moderate power gain from burning a more volatile fuel and you the consumer don’t need to go to the petrol station as often. In some case studies, some cars are found to have gained an extra 20MPG just from using this system and some rumours say cars that are already efficient will gain a lot more.

The American Department of Energy has announced funding for a variety of energy-efficient building technologies and training courses to create skilled environmental jobs and workers.

There will be a $76m fund that will be divided between 45 companies developing technologies to upgrade the environmental credentials of America’s buildings, there will also be 13 training courses to ensure people will be qualified to build and install them in commercial properties.

“These projects will help the United States lead the world in advancing energy-efficient technologies,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

“Energy-efficient commercial buildings will help our country cut its carbon emissions and energy costs while the training programs will upgrade the skills of the current workforce and attract the next generation to careers in the emerging clean-energy economy.”

39% of the USA’s total greenhouse gas emissions, 50% of its sulphur dioxide and 18% of its NOx emissions are released by domestic and commercial buildings.

There is a wide variety of technologies being funded; from analytic tools to building components, more insulation and better ventilation will all help lower the environmental impact.

There has been a 25 year global ban on commercial whaling, which may be about to come to an end. In Agadir, Morocco a meeting that finishes today which will judge whether or not to they will allow Norway, Iceland and Japan to legally hunt whales around Antarctica and elsewhere for 10 years in exchange for a slow decline of the numbers killed.

88 countries who are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will have the final say on whether the proposal will be approved or not.

The EU, led by Britain, is united with their opposition to rule against the ban being lifted, the US on the other hand strongly backs the proposal if certain guidelines are followed.

Australia and the Latin American countries appear to be setting a higher bar for approving the deal than other anti-whaling nations such as the US and New Zealand.

South Korea, meanwhile, may vote against anything that doesn’t give it similar whaling rights to Japan, while the positions of nations such as China and Russia are hard to gauge.

Greenpeace, WWF and Pew Environment Group, which are three of the world’s largest international non-government groups, raised a few eye brows over their stance; they say they are prepared to see the commercial whaling ban lifted if 6 conditions were met, they are;

• An end to hunting in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary
• No international trading of whale meat
• IWC science must be used to set limits
• No hunting of endangered species
• An end to use of the scientific whaling regulation
• If there is a majority, all governments must agree not to lodge an objection

Well to be honest I’m well out of my comfort zone with this topic, I’m by no way a vegetarian, so for me to pass judgement on another who wants to eat a different animal would make me hypocritical. With that said Japan Iceland and Norway bon appetit.