Bellway Homes: North West Region

Environmental Credentials

Bellway Homes is one of the UK’s best-known housebuilders, having grown from a small, family-owned business into one of the sector’s leading names. With an already established reputation for delivering excellent customer service, in 2017 Bellway committed to making significant improvements to its own environmental credentials, with enhanced sustainability at the forefront of the company’s thinking.

To better prioritise compliance, heighten segregation and recycling rates, and maximise landfill diversion, Bellway’s North West region opted to move away from the ad-hoc use of locally-based waste contractors to service its sites. Instead it sought to establish a longer-term partnership that would help implement a best practice approach to waste management across all its sites region-wide.

Contract Discussions

In the summer of 2017, Reconomy and Bellway Homes began talks about forming a partnership that would introduce Reconomy’s segregation-led waste management strategy to the housebuilder’s North West region. Securing the deal required Reconomy to achieve compliance with Bellway Homes’ group-wide T&Cs for waste management, unlocking the potential for the two companies to work together in any part of the UK. To satisfy the North West region’s management team, Reconomy created a pricing structure for waste containers that was consistent with the costs charged by their previous waste contractors. This gave Bellway cost certainty by removing any fears of increased charges, with the added potential for major saving’s through Reconomy’s segregation-led model.

Key to this model’s success is minimising the use of any non-segregated ‘general waste’ containers, which are charged at a premium rate. Instead, collecting and disposing of pre-segregated waste – such as timber, plasterboard, light mixed compactable waste, hazardous waste, metal and inert – increases opportunities for reuse and recycling, allowing Reconomy to negotiate more favourable rates.

Implementation and education

The first two Bellway North West sites to introduce the Reconomy model were Primrose Meadow in Warrington and Acorn Fields in Liverpool, with both sites going live in Q4 of 2017. Reconomy personnel immediately set about establishing waste management compounds on the sites, with skips and containers sited for each waste stream, supported by high visibility signage. To allow for the segregation of waste at source, all mini-tippers and wheelie-bins – which are used to transport waste around site – were also colour-coded accordingly. To minimise the risk of crosscontamination of waste, education of site personnel formed a key part of Reconomy’s strategy. Toolbox talks were regularly given to trades, together with a bespoke presentation around the importance of hazardous waste compliance. These were all well received by the site teams, who engaged positively with the new approach and were presented with certificates of recognition for their efforts.

Reporting

Through Reconomy’s reporting platform, the Reconomy Portal, it has been possible for Reconomy and Bellway to scrutinise individual waste streams and identify areas for improvement. For example, analysis of wood waste revealed a high number of pallets being discarded of in skips, which was having a big impact on utilisation rates. This led to a change of approach, with pallets now being stockpiled and collected separately. Elsewhere, high levels of paint tins found within hazardous waste identified that take back schemes hadn’t been established with contractors, allowing for this to be swiftly corrected and reducing Bellway’s overall hazardous waste levels.

These improvements have only been possible because of the added visibility around waste types and volumes provided by Reconomy’s segregation-led model. Bellway’s waste management reports have also needed to be collated in a standardised way to comply with their needs at group-level. Thanks to the Reconomy Portal, many of these are now being generated automatically, significantly reducing administration time.

Achieving Results

Since Reconomy’s waste management strategy was introduced on Primrose Meadow and Acorn Fields, 198.35 tonnes have been disposed of, with 99.9% landfill diversion achieved. Furthermore, Reconomy’s segregation-led model has reduced Bellway’s overall waste costs across the two sites by 26% compared against ‘general waste’ disposal costs. Following the swift successes recorded at both sites, an additional six sites came onboard in January and February 2018, with further roll-outs planned throughout the remainder of the year. Region-wide, Reconomy has to date managed the disposal of over 420 tonnes of waste on behalf of Bellway North West, maintaining an impressive 99.9% landfill diversion rate.