Massive Savings on Landfill Charges

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Landfill charges have a significant negative effect on the bottom line for building companies across Britain, but two major projects being run by Carillion Construction in Wales have showed over recent months how massive savings can be made – reducing costs and cutting the company’s carbon footprint.

Seventy six tonnes of building components have been saved from going in the skip thanks to the work of Plastic Surgeon: the repair specialist having been tasked with carrying out various snagging operations at the Ferrara Quay and South Quay developments; both in Swansea.

The scope of the works encompasses almost all of the specialist skills offered by Plastic Surgeon and the products saved from going to landfill include internal and external doors, windows, worksurfaces, wood laminate flooring, baths, basins, shower trays, and various types of tiling.

At Ferrara Quay the company has repaired more than 300 internal doors as well as a significant number of the wood veneered fire doors that form the corridor entrance to each dwelling. The repairs – often more than one per door – generally involved carefully filling to restore the profile, before they were rubbed down and the colour or wood effect could be restored by hand.

Then in the kitchens Plastic Surgeon’s involvement concerned filling and colour matching high gloss cupboard doors. In many cases getting the sheen or reflectance right so that the area of the repair would not be distinguishable took longer than colour matching repairs to the granite worktops. Meanwhile, scratches and other damage to the stainless steel splash-backs were simply polished out in a process similar to that which the Finishers use for glass.

While the 458 internal doors repaired across the two projects saw a total waste saving approaching 10 tonnes, a heavier individual weight meant the 149 entrance doors actually beat this figure.

With natural granite being the densest material dealt with, the worktops added another 2.7 tonnes to the figures, while the 29 baths repaired prevented nearly another tonne of waste, as well as considerable bulk, filling the skips.

Overall the 20 different categories of product or component saved – which also included a fireplace and a large number of fascia panels on the apartments’ balconies – has brought the tonnage for the job up to the current total of 76 tonnes.

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