{"id":707,"date":"2019-08-05T10:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-05T10:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/?p=707"},"modified":"2020-03-21T23:21:11","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T23:21:11","slug":"the-social-media-chores-that-neednt-be-a-chore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/08\/05\/the-social-media-chores-that-neednt-be-a-chore\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste Not Want Not"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unless you\u2019ve had had your head buried in the sand in recent years, you can\u2019t have failed to notice that plastic is the new bogeyman. And single-use plastic is the biggest monster of all. Thousands of tonnes are reaching the earth\u2019s oceans. Even more going to landfill. And the uncomfortable truth is that the construction industry is one of the biggest culprits in perpetuating the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The construction industry has a plastic problem. A 50,000 tonne per annum problem with plastic packaging alone. It\u2019s fair to say that the sector has not been the quickest on the uptake with the reduce, reuse, recycle agenda. In fact, the launch of Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) \u201cSpotlight on \u2026 plastics and packaging\u201d campaign last year threw up some shocking statistics:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"services\">\n<li>23%&nbsp;of plastic produced in the UK is consumed by the construction industry<\/li>\n<li>25%&nbsp;of construction packaging waste&nbsp;by weight is plastic<\/li>\n<li>3x more packaging waste is produced by construction than all UK households combined<\/li>\n<li>25% of skips that leave site during the construction phase are filled with disposable packaging, including cardboard, timber and plastic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a permanent building material, plastic is often unbeatable. But in it\u2019s single-use form \u2013 the type that gets discarded &#8211; it becomes a problem. 25% of plastic waste in construction is in packaging but substantial amounts come from unused materials caused by over ordering, over-specification, and throwing away damaged items caused in transport, storage or handling.<\/p>\n<p>As the issue becomes more ingrained in public consciousness \u2013 and who hasn\u2019t been nagged about plastics at home by eco-savvy teens and children? \u2013 then the construction industry will come under increasing pressure to drive better practice through the supply chain.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible to reduce the amount of plastic going to landfill. In Germany for instance, construction generates 201.8 million tonnes of waste in construction and demolition, with around 90% of that recycled. Around 80% of the plastic waste in Germany is recycled, compared to less than 40% in the UK.<\/p>\n<p><b>Reduce<\/b>: suppliers can deliver in larger packs, cutting the volume of packaging per item. Some manufacturers are developing reusable crates and pallet take-back schemes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Reuse<\/b>: merchants and contractors are beginning to ask suppliers to take packaging away to reuse for the next delivery.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Recycle<\/b>: Of course with a complex problem like this, the answers are never simple. For example, many companies trying to reduce the amount of plastic they send to waste are stymied by issues like the co-mingling of different types of plastic: it is nigh on almost impossible to identify the type of plastic involved as there is so little labelling. Using a<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>licensed Waste Management Contractor to dispose of packaging can drastically increase the amount recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unless you\u2019ve had had your head buried in the sand in recent years, you can\u2019t have failed to notice that plastic is the new bogeyman. And single-use plastic is the biggest monster of all. Thousands of tonnes are reaching the earth\u2019s oceans. Even more going&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationpr.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}