Managing Your Building Site Waste during the Outbreak

Managing Your Building Site Waste during the Outbreak

During any construction operation, project management provides the foundations for it to be established. These construction projects require meticulous planning, with project managers needing to draw off a long list of competencies to navigate multiple teams safely through a project. However, a construction scheme must always be prepared for variations and alterations within the plans. With strong project management, an entire construction scheme can adapt and be kept on track, from the re-organisation of workers to the collection of construction waste.

Throughout these unprecedented times, due to the coronavirus outbreak, managing a construction project is faced with the new challenge of social distancing on top of protocol health and safety. Additionally, due to many companies shutting down for a period of lockdown, the logistics of each construction site has suddenly become even more complex.

However, within all the despair of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a ray of hope with the completion of the NHS Nightingale. 

The Nightingale Development

Despite all of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus, the NHS single-purpose hospital has been achieved in a record-breaking timespan. A twenty-first-century pandemic requires an unparalleled response, and East London has done precisely that. 

NHS Nightingale is the UK’s newest and largest hospital facility built amid a global pandemic. In just nine days, East London’s ExCeL exhibition centre has been converted into a temporary NHS hospital. The 87,328 square metres has been transformed into more than 80 hospital wards, providing a vital 4,000 extra beds to help treat coronavirus patients in need of intensive care treatment. 

If this hospital reached full capacity, it would be one of the largest hospitals in the world. And, all this was achieved in little over a week’s work!

How was The NHS Nightingale achieved?

The construction industry joined forces with the military and NHS to achieve a logistical and engineering marvel, and have transformed the ExCeL exhibition from a blank sheet to a fully operational hospital.

The project was completed on the 3rd of April 2020 by five hundred workers, and with the help of two hundred soldiers a day from the Royal Anglian Regiment and the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The health secretary Matt Hancock describe their achievement as a “testament to the work and brilliance of the many people involved.” With the military working long shifts alongside NHS staff and contractors, everyone has pulled together to get this facility off the ground. 

Architects and engineers from BDP were involved in the planning and conversion of the exhibition centre. With the sheer scale and timeframe being the two most significant challenges, not including the Covid-19 virus itself. The materials selected to create the framework for the individual bed bays were selected due to their composition and lightweight properties, allowing the life-saving centre to piece together in no time.

Social distancing was implemented as much as possible to prioritise the health of the workers. The whole construction site was run with military precision and exceptional communication; soldiers in full uniform helped provide infrastructure, army trucks were aided with logistics, as carpenters and electricians often worked throughout the night to get their jobs completed.

A Streamlined Waste Management Service

Logistics are a crucial part of any construction site. Construction logistics incorporates all aspects of the logistics supply chain and store management, as well as the development and optimisation of the site’s logistics to aid the needs of the project. Managing the movement of workers, goods, equipment and construction waste is important at any time, but during an outbreak, organising logistics becomes paramount.

Implementation of an affordable and streamlined waste management service will undoubtedly help your site to run smoothly. If the logistics of a site are managed effectively, time and money will be saved — vital during these financially worrying times. But, more importantly, by asserting careful control over the goods leaving and entering the construction site, it becomes easier to maximise the safety of your workers. Through vigilant planning, social interaction can be monitored and reduced. 

During the coronavirus outbreak, your company needs to pair up with waste management services that really meet your construction sites needs. Let us collect and utilise your negative construction waste, optimising the materials you have leftover and recycle them into new, reusable materials. We can save you valuable time and money, whilst also helping your business to reduce its environmental footprint. We offer a variety of solutions to ensure you get the most out of your waste materials. 

Construction Waste

Construction sites are one of the most significant producers of waste compared to any industry. It is estimated, by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), that the construction industry can account for 60% of all the materials used. Furthermore, it is responsible for 33% of all the waste produced in the UK, and 45% of all carbon dioxide emissions. It has even been calculated that the construction industry disposes, on average, 25 million tonnes of waste in landfill sites.

If your site has any leftover MDF, hard and softwood, ply or even pallets and boxes, let us help you to remove, recycle and reuse this wood waste. We grade your wood waste based on the Wood Recyclers Associations (WRA), so you don’t have to! By grading your leftover wood, we can ensure it takes the most effective recycling route. Our ‘clean’ grade A wood is suitable for producing animal bedding and mulches, whereas our grade D (hazardous waste) will be transported safely to specialist facilities. Your waste wood can even be converted into biomass fuels too.

Similarly, we can help remove any of your waste metals safely and in an environmentally-friendly way. By implementing a metal waste system that meets your construction sites needs, you can ‘go green’ and recycle your waste metal in accordance with the law and your business’ financial situation. Additionally, we have collections for waste plastic, waste electrical and electronic waste (WEEE), as well as hazardous liquid and solid waste.

At Fresco Environmental, we can offer a cost-effective solution to your construction sites needs, visit our website to see all of the waste streams we can assist with. We can help you increase your recycling with our zero waste to landfill policy and even potentially rebate some of your waste materials. Contact us today to find out how you can implement Fresco Environmental at short notice, to help keep your workforce safe, and keep your projects on target.

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