The first waste management contractor to sign up to the WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) Halving Waste To Landfill agreement has said that for them, diverting 100 percent of construction, demolition and excavation waste from landfill is an achievable and realistic target.

Birmingham-based Premier Waste UK became the first waste management contractor to sign up to WRAP’s Halving Waste to Landfill agreement. This voluntary framework has been devised to help the industry work towards halving the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste sent to landfill by 2012. The target, adopted in the Strategy for Sustainable Construction launched last year, is viewed as being both environmentally and financially critical – due to restricted landfill capacity and the continually increasing costs of waste disposal.

Established in 1988, Premier Waste employs 67 people and currently draws on innovative processes and technology which enables it to divert almost 98 percent of its clients’ waste from landfill. The company intends to increase this figure during 2009, setting itself a target of recovering all the waste it collects from clients and sending nothing to landfill. Wayne Clark, Operations Director at Premier Waste UK, said that signing up to WRAP’s Halving Waste To Landfill agreement was viewed as an important step for the business and that it would help them demonstrate their commitment to best practice and differentiate them in the eyes of their clients.

He explained: "We’ve been banging the waste recovery drum for the last seven or eight years, so we were really pleased when we saw that WRAP was launching a framework to help the industry work together more closely and push the boundaries of what can be achieved. Disposal of waste to landfill is becoming an increasingly expensive option, so recovering waste in ever greater amounts is really the only sustainable answer in the long term – from both an economic and environmental perspective. We’ll be working to increase our diversion rate to 100 percent this year and we think this is an extremely realistic target."

For more information on the Halving Waste To Landfill agreement visit the WRAP website under www.wrap.org.uk/construction.