Resource efficiency
Ensuring sustainable waste management that safeguards the quality of the environment whilst delivering our services.
By managing our waste sustainably we can conserve precious natural resources, play our part in UK carbon reduction, and save money.
Our waste management strategy has been updated to understand the outlook to 2030. Our target to 2025 is to divert 98% of our total waste to beneficial use. This target will be closely monitored in the event of any significant regulatory change or technological advancement to ensure that it is an achievable but stretching target. We have continued to improve our performance in diverting waste to beneficial use’ and are pleased to report that in 2021/22 we diverted 97.8% from landfill.
Our operations process a substantial amount of waste – from the biosolids recovered from our wastewater treatment facilities to the excavated material displaced when we dig holes. Some of the waste we deal with is difficult to treat, and achieving the target continues to require a big commitment from employees and contractors across many different business areas.
| Waste type | Waste produced (wet tonnes) | Waste diverted to beneficial use (wet tonnes) | % diverted to beneficial use |
| Wastewater sludge | 379,704 | 379,704 | 100% |
| Construction | 138,752 | 137,606 | 99% |
| Network excavated material | 65,719 | 58,711 | 89% |
| Water sludge | 55,164 | 55,164 | 100% |
| Grit & screenings | 17,591 | 11,931 | 68% |
| Ash | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Operational site waste | 2,280 | 2,120 | 93% |
| Hazardous waste | 2,375 | 2,111 | 89% |
| Office waste | 349 | 349 | 100% |
| Total | 661,933 | 647,695 | 97.8% |
All our waste is also subject to Environment Agency inspection. In addition our sludge and process wastes are verified independently by auditors Jacobs Engineering Group. For hazardous waste a detailed consignment note process is followed.
In 2021/22 wastewater sludge was our largest waste stream. 100% of our treated wastewater sludge produced continues to be diverted from landfill. A large proportion of this sludge was recycled into agriculture as biosolids fertiliser and the rest was used in land restoration projects.
100% of our water sludge waste stream continues to be diverted from landfill. A large proportion is recycled to land under the Environmental Permitting Regulations.
We have seen an increase in hazardous waste diverted from landfill to beneficial re-use which is now up to 85%, a 4% improvement on our diversion rates achieved in the previous reporting year.
There has been no ash waste produced in 2021/22.