Recycling road planings, construction site waste and street cleaning residue is an essential consideration for highway authorities and contractors, and one of the many steps on the journey to achieving a more sustainable, circular economy in the sector. Go Plant is at the forefront of helping us all to clean up our act! We can ensure the recycling process is done correctly, through the UK’s first real-time, electronic waste transfer notes.
Go Plant, which provides operated hire sweeping services and arisings disposal across the infrastructure sector, including the disposal of road waste materials such as planings and waste from road construction sites, is first in line to react to this digital shift in the market. Following a successful trial the electronic transfer notice process went live in June. The notice can be accessed online, which, in phase two, will be linked with an online portal allowing clients to track the journey of their waste – creating a live, auditable trail of the safe removal and recycling of waste materials.
The platform is being rolled out for use in Go Plant depots. Go Plant uses third party disposal sites such as waste transfer stations and soil treatment companies that are permitted and regulated by the EA, and compliant with the relevant EWC code such as EWC 20 03 03, which covers street- cleaning residues.
Jonathan Gunn, environmental quality manager at Go Plant, says: ‘The waste disposal sites recycle the waste: so, for instance, soil treatment plants put it through a process to extract aggregates and sand and soil. Then it would re-enter the sector as per the circular economy. Nothing goes to landfill and so there is no landfill tax burden.’
Go Plant depots also have de watering plans which separate waste water so clients can be left with dry aggregate.
Jonathan adds ‘The biggest thing is being compliant – you have an audit trail – but you also have the full package from waste clearance on site, to proof of delivery of waste to a licensed disposal site, all through an efficient digital process that coincides with the invoice.’
Jonathan stresses the importance of the ‘duty of care’ regarding proper waste disposal and recycling – something he suggests is of greater emphasis now than ever before and naturally at the heart of the EA’s audit and oversite responsibility.
He adds that waste has its own critical role to play in the net zero future: ‘The circular economy is massively important.
Obviously, the circular economy helps the carbon footprint, and with our system and services you know the materials are being reused and recycled. As part of our own duty of care, I have been visiting the disposal sites ensuring they are licensed and are recycling waste and using it responsibly.’
There is also a large appetite for this from the customers, he stressed, which for Go Plant already includes major Tier One contractors.
In the highways sector, there has been a pronounced move to paperless working in recent years with companies seeing impressive growth on the back of the market’s need for digital replacement.
For more information on how Go Plant can help your organisation become more compliant, contact: marketing@gpl-hire.co.uk Tel: 0800 090 2451