Everyone involved in the construction supply chain can now experience the benefits associated with BuilderScrap through the launch of a new Supply Chain Membership.

The BuilderScrap Supply Chain membership allows members of the supply chain to demonstrate their support for the reuse agenda and the BuilderScrap initiative, and provide a solution for their clients’ surplus construction materials.

Brendon Kenny of BuilderScrap commented ‘with sustainability, providence and supply chain waste management policies all becoming part of the tendering process for a lot of businesses, BuilderScrap offers a viable offering that can help alleviate the pressure on business when dealing with the management of reusable construction materials; a vital part of any sustainability programme.’

Landfill sites have a number of associated problems including high emissions, ground and water contamination as well as being unsightly and smelly. One problem that an innovative landfill in Beijing is looking to solve is the bad odours created by landfill following a barrage of complaints from local residents bemoaning the unsavoury stench.

Beijing has a population of 17 million which is developing a more and more westernised throw away attitude, the city generates 18,000 tonnes of waste every day. This has led to a number (reports suggest around 200) of poorly managed tips on the city outskirts, many of which are illegally operated.

The landfill in question which is adopting a new strategy to reduce bad odours is the Asuwai dump site; they are set to install 100 large deodorant guns on the site. The giant deodorant guns can spray dozens of litres of deodorant each minute over a 50 metre radius. There are also plans to add more plastic covers over the landfill site to reduce the number of bad odours from becoming airborne.

Now local residents will be able to wake up to the smell of a combination of garbage and l’eau de toilette. Let’s just hope that the Beijing residents approve of the choice of deodorant, maybe a poll could be undertaken to determine a favourite fragrance.

Of course this can only be a temporary fix (if indeed it can be called that), China is developing a massive consumer economy and the statistics above tell us that longer term solutions are required. Less than 4% of rubbish in Beijing is recycled compared to 35% in the UK. Further to this only 2% is burned and the remainder is sent to landfill.

China faces a big challenge in order to ensure that its economic growth and success does not come at the cost of society and the environment. Consumer growth over the last 10-20 years has meant that the problem of waste has emerged too quickly to deal with effectively. The Chinese Government now realises this is an issue that will need to be actively addressed with plans to invest in a number of new incinerators, although this has been met by some strong local opposition as concerns have been raised regarding the safety of these. I assume that strangely they do not have similar concerns over the safety of the giant deodorant guns?

Source – The Guardian

BuilderScrap recently beat internationally renowned entrants to win The Rushlight Award for Waste Management.
The Rushlight Awards celebrate the leading energy, resource and environmental technologies of Britain and Ireland, and were held this year at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on Thursday 28th January.

The awards were presented to businesses that excelled in the environmental and clean technology fields. BuilderScrap won the award for waste management, which was accepted by Eddie McGee, Les Owens and Brendon Kenny (Pictured).

BuilderScrap is an innovative new business, which aims to lower the amount of constructions waste being sent unnecessarily to landfill. Using web 2.0 technology, member of this free service are able to ‘post’ details of their surplus materials to the web. Other member can then enquire about these products.

As well as member of the construction industry, other sectors using the website include charities, schools and community groups.

The not for profit business benefits not only the environment through less waste going to landfill and fewer carbon emulsions to ‘remake’ new material, but also the person passing on material through lower disposal cost and the receiver of goals through lost cost free product procurement.

As well as the prestigious Rushlight Award, BuilderScrap has been short listed in the Sustain Magazine Awards, to be presented in early March, and BuilderScrap Apprentice Paul Jones has been nominated for an All Stars Award, to be presented on Friday 5th February.

Managing Director, Les Owens, said ‘I am extremely proud of everyone involved in the project. Since launching less than 16 months ago, we have seen a great take up and this is growing on a daily basis. We have also had a lot of interest from abroad, and I have been invited to present the product to the Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection in March.’

BuilderScrap.com is completely free to use, and is supported by BRE, O2, Salford University and the Centre for Construction Innovation.