WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has launched a Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP) template to help the construction industry comply with legislation coming into force in England in April, which will make SWMPs a mandatory requirement on all aspects of construction work worth more than £300,000.

The template, which supports standard, good and best practice in general construction, housing and civil engineering projects, has been developed with Halcrow, Costain, C4S, the NHBC Foundation and the BRE to support the industry in developing their plans. The template comprises a series of 14 steps, which follow the construction lifecycle from pre-design to project completion and review.  Using the template will enable contractors to develop key performance indicators (KPIs) for waste and materials, and monitor performance throughout the project. Importantly, the template can be used to demonstrate good and best practice performance beyond simple standard compliance with the regulations.

Mervyn Jones, WRAP Programme Manager for Waste Minimisation and Management, comments: "Now that SWMPs are to become mandatory we wanted to provide an approach that would not just help the sector and its clients comply with the legislation, but also offer the opportunity to identify and deliver good and best practice in reducing waste and using materials more efficiently. The template will lead construction professionals through both the development and implementation of the plan, at each stage of construction."

The template can be implemented from the conception of a project and offers the flexibility for use either in its entirety or for relevant elements to be incorporated into existing templates or systems that a company may have in place.  It will allow contractors to predict and monitor the waste produced by a project, detail decisions taken to minimise waste generated, and at completion produce final reports to demonstrate overall performance.

The template includes guidance at each step to enable professionals to understand the data they need to input and how it can be used to inform the rest of the plan.  The template is part of a suite of WRAP resources to support SWMPs that includes: guidance to assist the development of standard, good and best practice SWMPs;

• guidance reflecting the requirements applicable to small and large sites;
• guidance to facilitate and record waste management KPIs in order to assist project benchmarking and continuous environmental improvement;
• guidance on roles and responsibilities within the SWMP;
• Toolbox Talks on SWMPs for the use at site induction and other stages of the project; and
• example contract clauses to assist contractual arrangements in supporting the implementation of the SWMP.

The template and supporting guidance are available free of charge from www.wrap.org.uk/construction.  Visitors will also find a wealth of other guidance which includes in-depth guides to waste minimisation and management, a step by step guide to materials resource efficiency in regeneration projects and a selection of case studies demonstrating good and best practice to achieve outstanding waste reduction.

WRAP
Tel: 01295 819695