The potential environmental impacts associated with many waste management facilities will have been assessed as part of the planning process. This should have been an integral part of the design process, with predicted impacts leading to design iteration and incorporating mitigation measures into the final solution. As these will have formed a formal part of the planning application it is important that they feed through into the construction phase.
Following the implementation of the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008, all construction projects with a value in excess of £300,000 are required to have a site waste management plan. The aim is to ensure that waste generation within the project is minimised and, where it cannot be minimised, that waste is recovered, recycled or if necessary disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. The contents of the plan, including the selected recycling and recovery routes, should be reviewed periodically to ensure that no opportunities to minimise the environmental impact of development are missed. The plan should be a dynamic document and will change over the length of the project, particularly when any alterations to the design are made.
Depending on the circumstances and scale of the proposed development it may be appropriate to prepare a construction environmental management plan (CEMP). This document will set out the background to the proposal and its setting, core environmental management objectives, criteria relevant to construction and the mitigation measures proposed as part of the environmental impact assessment process. This may be superseded by a site environmental management plan (SEMP) once the facility is operating.