Report finds UK construction industry must address waste management

Qflow, a construction tech company with a strong focus on climate issues, has recently published a report examining the state of waste management within the construction industry.

The UK Construction Industry Annual Waste Report 2023 (Photo: Qflow)

The report delves into the analysis of more than 90,000 legally required Waste Transfer Notes (WTNs) spanning from June 2018 to April 2023. The findings reveal an overall waste compliance rate of only 64%, indicating that one in three legally mandated fields are left unchecked.

Named ‘The UK Construction Industry Annual Waste Report 2023,’ the report sheds light on the consequences of these omissions. Qflow says that the incomplete data hampers efforts to fully understand how waste is managed, where it ends up, and the types of waste involved. 

Addressing the gravity of the situation, the Environment Agency is ramping up its efforts to combat waste crime. Those failing to provide complete documentation could face a fixed penalty notice of £300 or even prosecution, leading to potential imprisonment. The report identifies that if all the non-compliant WTNs analyzed were to incur fixed penalty charges, the resulting fines would surpass a staggering £13 million. 

Brittany Harris, Co-Founder & CEO of Qflow, said, “When we started this analysis, we knew it was going to highlight some pretty shocking practices, but I wasn’t prepared for this level of non-compliance! As an industry, construction consumes over 40% of the world’s raw resources and accounts for over 40% of landfill waste.

“Without good data on what’s happening to all this waste, we don’t have a chance of reducing it or improving material reuse and recycling. We hope that with the insights shared today, and by helping the industry get better data far more easily, we can work together with the regulators, industry bodies, developers and contractors to really transform construction from a linear and wasteful industry to one that is circular and low carbon.”