Contractor's guide to cutting waste from construction projects

A robust and comprehensive logistics plan is essential to reduce waste and cut costs on your construction site. You should carefully consider your project's logistics plan at an early stage.

A well-designed logistics plan can bring a number of benefits, including:

• reduced transportation of materials and equipment
• improved inventory control
• overall reductions in the quantities of waste
• health and safety benefits
• reduced traffic to and from the construction site

The logistics plan your business develops should form a core part of the overall site waste management plan. It should allow you to manage how waste is disposed of, and assess how costs and time taken can be reduced.

There are a number of ways of minimising waste through efficient logistics techniques. These include:

• controlling inventory via consolidation centres
• using just-in-time delivery techniques to reduce or even eliminate the need to store materials on-site
• setting up take-back schemes for unused materials
• identifying upcoming peaks in demand to avoid pinch points - known as 'demand smoothing'
• using software to accurately forecast quantities of materials and monitor their consumption on site
• reducing packaging waste through reusable or returnable pallets
• back-hauling waste materials using delivery vehicles (reverse logistics)

For more guidance on efficient logistics, see setting up a construction material logistics plan.