In recent years, as the drive towards greener building has accelerated, Remsol has helped numerous construction businesses to improve their waste and wider environmental management practices. Ranging from help in devising and then implementing Site Waste Management Plans, through training construction site staff about how to control the negative environmental effects of their activities, to taking control of waste management to deliver savings - we've got the skills and experience to help construction companies large and small.
Waste compaction leads to crushing savings
In the summer of 2005, a mid-sized construction company undertaking the fit-out phase of a new supermarket project recruited Remsol to take control of arrangements for waste management.
During previous similar work, it emerged that the majority of waste - mostly lightweight packaging materials, cable from second-fix electrical installation and timber pallets and cartons - was simply placed into large 35cuyd open hooklift skips for removal to local landfill. Sometimes, 3-4 of these skips were emptied every week during the height of such projects and often with a payload of less than 1 tonne.
At Remsol's suggestion, a small portable compactor was used instead aimed at reducing collection frequencies by significantly improving payloads.
The result was a fantastic reduction in skip movements, with the compactor emptied just once a fortnight in the first few months of the project and no more than once a week in the latter, busier stages.
This simple change proved a hit with the construction contractor as well as their client and the developer. Increased payload quantities of around 3 tonnes meant fewer journeys, lower transport costs and less pollutive vehicluar emissions.
Worker exposure to asbestos prevented and contaminated excavation spoil disposed of safely
A construction client engaged to build a new electricity substation on an industrial site in Lancashire asked for Remsol's help in testing samples of excavated spoil to determine the correct landfill classification.
However, it was soon apparent to Remsol's experts that the client had a more pressing problem - a visual inspection of trial trenches that had already been dug revealed a fine layer of greyish material close to the surface of the excavation and just beneath the concrete slab. It was felt that this might be asbestos, perhaps buried on the site in some earlier incarnation - the site had been used for a variety of industrial and chemical manufacturing purposes since 1926 - and the client promptly ordered all work to cease until tests could verify suspicions.
It was found that the soil did contain chrysotile or white asbestos, rendering the excavation more hazardous and leading to the need for improved worker safety controls.
The presence of asbestos also changed the classification of the spoil and Remsol was appointed to manage its' safe disposal.
As the excavation proceeded, pools of dark liquid were soon noticed, and extracted samples had a strong chemical odour. A full chemcial analysis of the soil found high levels of contamination with a range of organic compounds of hydrocarbon origin that meant that some of the spoil was unsuitable for landfill disposal after failing to meet stringent Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). Remsol quickly devised a means of grading the spoil at source, with uncontaminated material removed for local landfill whilst the heavily contaminated waste was segregated and eventually sent for incineration at a waste-to-energy facility.
Without Remsol's expert help, the client's staff would almost certainly have been exposed to asbestos. And, the costs of disposing of the excavated material would easily have escalated were it not for Remsol's quick thinking and ability to ensure that only the contaminated element was sent for expensive incineration.