The Welsh Government has announced that site waste management plans (SWMPs) for the construction and demolition (C&D) sector are to be voluntary, despite previously stating its preference for them to be mandatory.

SWMPs are meant to encourage the ‘effective management of materials’ to ensure waste is considered at all stages of a construction project - from design through to completion. Last year, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that it was repealing the legal requirement for construction sites to have SWMPs as part of the Environmental Theme of the Red Tape Challenge to ‘remove regulations which are either ineffective or hold back growth’ and ‘free-up business’. (According to Defra, the decision came following an impact assessment that showed ‘repealing the regulations should provide a reduction in the regulatory burden to businesses without any significant environment impact’. Defra added that ‘the purpose of deregulation is not to outlaw SWMPs or to discourage their use; it is merely to allow businesses to balance the costs and benefits of using a SWMP’.)

Despite this, Wales announced plans in its November 2012 Construction and Demolition sector plan, to do the reverse; to make SWMPs in Wales mandatory. It was thought that by making SWMPs mandatory, it would ‘encourage developers and contractors in the C&D sector to think about the wastes they produce and to plan their developments to prevent, minimise and recycle wastes and to divert them from landfill’.

The Welsh Government said that legal SWMPs would also help provide a framework that encourages resource efficiency and waste reduction whilst helping to meet Welsh recycling targets and policies set out in the overarching Wales Waste Strategy ‘Towards Zero Waste’.

A total of 31 comments were received over the consultation period, and while the ‘majority of consultation responses were supportive of proposals for site waste management plans for large works’, there were said to be ‘mixed views’ on the impact on smaller firms, enforcing the plans and fees.

As such, Natural Resources, Culture and Sport Minister John Griffiths has announced that SWMPs will be voluntary.

He said: “Recent studies estimate that the 87 per cent of construction and demolition waste is recycled, prepared for re-use or recovered for use elsewhere. Our target is for the industry to achieve 90 per cent by 2019/20, so the sector is on track and I congratulate them for their efforts so far.

“I am keen to support businesses, and the industry has already demonstrated that it can achieve high recycling rates. With this in mind, I intend to adopt site waste management plans as a voluntary code of practice in Wales, to be accompanied by best practice guidance.”

Griffiths said that the voluntary code and guidance will be developed with the industry and will focus on “preventing waste, preparation for re-use as well as recycling for businesses”.

Find out more about site waste management plans.