Sustainable Healthcare Construction – Tackling Avoidable Waste

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

The fact that the construction industry generates waste isn’t new information. But how big an issue is it, and how do we avoid adding to the ‘waste mountain’ during new healthcare building projects?

What’s good from a sustainability point of view also tends to be good for public health – so these are significant questions. Minimising waste reduces the chances of hazardous materials entering the environment and limits the carbon emissions we produce when we process, transport and dispose of construction materials that aren’t needed.

To deal with the scale first of all: the construction sector is the largest user of materials in the UK. Defra statistics from 2016 showed that 63 % (120 million tonnes) of the total waste stream in England came from construction, demolition and excavation. Around 60 million tonnes (50%) of this was construction and demolition waste.

Some waste can be downcycled into aggregates and other lower value materials, but over 5 million tonnes finds its way into landfill. The question is how much of that waste is unavoidable? And is it only ‘unavoidable’ because of the construction methods and materials selected?

What is Construction Waste?

Defining ‘construction waste’ is harder than it at first seems. Getting a grip on construction waste means looking at the entire lifecycle from manufacturing building materials through to the end of life of the building. The choice of construction method has a huge bearing on how much avoidable waste is generated and on the scope for effective stewardship.

The principles of effective waste elimination are these:

Select materials that generate less waste during processing and whose offcuts are easily reused or recycled.
Aim to send nothing to the work site that isn’t going to be part of the building. Contain waste in manufacturing facilities where possible.
Design buildings that minimise the volume of offcuts and unwanted materials by aligning with standard dimensions and quantities.
Support a circular economy by choosing materials and methods with building components that are easy to dismantle, reuse or recycle at end-of-life.

The goal of zero avoidable waste becomes more attainable with Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). The offsite methods Osborne has deployed on many healthcare construction projects have made a significant contribution to our zero to landfill strategy.