Barratt London: Lombard Wharf

Inner-city restrictions

Lombard Wharf is a flagship 28-storey Barratt London residential development situated in Battersea, on the banks of the River Thames. When completed, the regenerated brownfield site will deliver a total of 134 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and penthouses.

From the earliest planning stages, achieving best practice waste minimisation was high on Barratt London’s priority list. The limitations of the site, however, called for an innovative approach to be taken.

Restricted space allowed for only one skip to be placed on site at a time, whilst singular access for heavy-goods vehicles also meant that regular skip exchanges or waste collections would have been problematic. It was therefore decided that establishing a full-size waste management compound would not be feasible.

As the preferred waste services provider to Barratt London, Reconomy was closely involved in the development of a tailored waste management strategy for Lombard Wharf. In November 2015 Reconomy’s London Projects anager spent a week on site establishing numerous waste management processes and delivering toolbox talks to trades about segregation best practices.

Wait and Load

Due to Lombard Wharf’s space restrictions, the decision was taken to use the on-site skip for general construction waste and introduce a ‘wait and load’ strategy for recyclable waste streams, including metal and timber. This involved segregating waste at source and then transporting it to a ground-level holding area in wheelie bins. To ensure waste streams were correctly segregated, trades were each given responsibility for their own ‘branded’ bins so those responsible for any poor practices could be identified and given extra training.

Once at the holding area, the waste was stockpiled and collected on weekly wait and load schedules. This involved skips being delivered, immediately filled with the stockpiled waste and removed again, with the entire process typically taking no longer than 30-40 minutes.

Sustain-a-bale®

Light mixed waste can account for up to 50% of all waste generated on a housebuilding project. Logistically this would have been almost impossible to dispose of using skips, given the space and access limitations at Lombard Wharf. The decision to install Reconomy’s Sustain-abale product was therefore made during the initial planning phase of the project. Sustain-a-bale works by compacting cardboard, packaging and other light mixed waste streams into bales, reducing the amount of space they occupy and the frequency of required collections.

To maximise cost-efficiency and savings, the baler was installed at the optimum time, October 2016. This coincided with the start of the dry-lining and internal fit-out processes, when volumes of light mixed began to significantly increase. To ensure the baler achieved its full potential, Reconomy deployed a full-time labourer at Lombard Wharf to oversee the baling process. In addition to loading the baler, the labourer was also able to retrieve items that had been discarded accidentally or through carelessness which could be retained for use elsewhere on site.

Achieving Results

Between October 2016 and January 2017, Lombard Wharf generated 204 tonnes of light mixed waste, all of which was baled and removed as part of weekly Sustain-abale collections. Had this waste been disposed of in skips, it would have required an estimated five skip exchanges per day to remove, requiring over 100 extra waste collection journeys per month and creating approximately 2,400kg of additional carbon emissions. Not only has Sustain-a-bale eased vehicle congestion both on and around the site, it has saved up to £7,000 per month in disposal costs.

To maximise cost efficiencies and environmental performance, the on-site general construction waste skip is not used to dispose of recyclable materials. As a control measure, if this skip is exchanged more than three times a week an automatic notification alerts the Reconomy Projects Manager. This allows for any corrective actions or re-training to be swiftly provided. Lombard Wharf is currently diverting an impressive 98.8% of its waste away from landfill. Waste streams disposed of via ‘wait and load’ and Sustain-a-bale have consistently achieved 100% landfill diversion.