Survey of arisings and use of construction and demolition waste: main document

Abstract:

Three related surveys were carried out during the first six months of 2002 to establish estimates for the arisings and use of construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) in 2001 in England and Wales, and in each of the regions covered by Regional Aggregate Working Parties. The work was commissioned by the Minerals and Waste Planning Division (now part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - ODPM - formerly part of the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions - DTLR) with the support of the Welsh Assembly Government. It was carried out by Symonds Group Ltd, with the support of WRc plc on issues of statistical design and analysis.

The three surveys covered operators of crushers and screens, licensed landfills and Paragraph 9 & 19 registered exempt sites. Between them, these surveys were designed to generate estimates for recycled aggregate and soil, C&D waste used and disposed of at licensed landfills, and C&D waste spread on registered exempt sites. The surveys made a clear distinction between hard C&D waste and excavation waste in order to identify not just the current rate of aggregate recycling, but also the further potential.

The information generated will feed into the revision of MPG6 (in England) and the Aggregates Technical Advisory Note (in Wales), and into other policy documents which deal with recycled aggregate.

The expectation is that comparable surveys will be run in future, to coincide with the four-yearly collection of data on primary aggregate production.

The estimate for production of recycled aggregate and soil has risen steeply, from 25.13 million tonnes in 1999 to 45.07 million tonnes in 2001. This growth accounts for almost all of the increase in overall C&D waste production in England and Wales between 1999 and 2001. The total for 2001 is estimated at 93.91 million tonnes ± 15% at a confidence level of 90%. Although this is almost 30% higher than the equivalent estimate for 1999 (72.5 million tonnes ± 35%), the difference between the central estimates for the two years is not statistically significant.

An estimated 38.02 million tonnes (± 18%) was crushed and/or screened prior to being recycled as aggregate: more than five times the tonnage of recycled soil. Some of the apparent rise in recycling activity can be attributed to a better 'detection rate' of crushers and screens used for processing hard C&D waste into recycled aggregate and soil, though the population of such machines is widely thought to be rising.

The greatest source of uncertainty, as in 1999, surrounds the true population of Paragraph 9 & 19 registered exempt sites, and the extent to which any unreliability within the national database of such sites is regionally biased. The study team concludes that such bias may well exist, and that as a consequence the regional estimate for the South West of England may well be disproportionately higher than those for other regions.

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction and Background to the Study
3. Preparing the Survey Lists and Forms
4. The Approach to Statistical Method
5. The Response to the Surveys and the Results Reported
6. The Regional Breakdown of Results
7. Findings and Discussion
8. Conclusions and Recommendations

Publication Year:

2002

Publisher:

Department for Communities and Local Government

DOI:

No DOI minted

Author(s):

Knapman, D., Herbert, A. and Ellis, J.