Lewes District Council deserve a round of applause for ensuring 98.71% of demolition waste from one of their developments has either been recycled or re-used. Read more here: Demolition smashes recycling targets ahead of new homes
According to the NBS, the recovery rate for non-hazardous building waste was about 90% in the UK in 2016. This seems good but according to WRAP, out of the 400 million tons of material used in construction every year, 100 million tons is wasted. The construction industry both accounts for about 60% of all materials used and for about 60% of waste in the UK.
This is great – and thanks, Julia, for promoting it. But in contrast, fly-tipping of building waste has increased since the Council short-sightedly started charging for depositing hard-core etc at the Ham Lane recycling centre. Building waste, and also tyres, are sometimes simply tipped into the ditch in Ham Lane, or the woodland by Southerham, from where Litter Free Lewes volunteers (including me) laboriously drag it out, and the Council has to send a vehicle to collect it. A very ill-thought-out policy.