The careful management of waste can result in significant benefits to the environment as well as cost savings. Bellway recognised some time ago the importance of managing waste efficiently and has steadily been making improvements to the way we manage our site waste. This is particularly important as the current landfill tax will rise from £40 per tonne now to £73 per tonne by 2013.

All Bellway sites operate Site Waste Management Plans these plans help to reduce the amount of waste produced which means less waste is sent to landfill, less energy is used in transporting waste and more materials are recycled. This year we have saved more than £550,000 in landfill tax by reusing 13,843 tonnes of demolition material on sites.

We measure our improvements in waste management in terms of skips used per home sold. Last year we reported that 4.3 skips had been used per home sold, this year we have improved upon that measure and have reduced the figure to 3.6 skips per home sold. In addition to managing site waste, all our offices recycle ink cartridges and segregate waste paper. Last year we exported that we had recycled 2,868 tonnes of plasterboard this year the figure has reduced to 1,408 tonnes which reflects greater efficiencies coupled with a reduced number of sales.

The general public are becoming increasingly aware of the need to reduce waste and in some sites we have been able to introduce waste segregation facilities in kitchens or communal recycling facilities in apartment schemes.

In 2004 we introduced our ‘don’t let your home get away with it campaign’ and sent all our customers good practice guidelines detailing simple household management practices they could follow that would benefit the environment. This campaign is still running today - all Bellway hand-over packs contain a list of good practice guidelines which we encourage our buyers to follow.