Hinkley Point C is the first new nuclear power station to be built in the UK in over 20 years. It aims to provide low-carbon electricity for approximately 6 million homes over its anticipated 60-year lifespan. The project is creating thousands of jobs, contributing to the local economy, and playing a crucial role in Britain’s energy security and transition to a net-zero carbon future. The construction on the 400-acre site generates a unique waste challenge, with hundreds of operational areas generating waste, ranging from conventional mixed construction & demolition waste and packaging to hazardous materials. A waste segregation strategy was needed to ensure efficient and compliant recycling practices.
It was crucial to prioritise worker health and safety, leading Hinkley Point C to partner with a flexible waste management company capable of providing reliable, consistent, compliant, safe and sustainable integrated waste solutions at scale.
The Solution
Biffa provides an embedded on-site team that operates specialised vehicles to gather waste from all site areas and oversees an on-site Waste Consolidation Centre. The team efficiently and compliantly streamline diverse and challenging waste streams to enhance recycling and reuse rates for various non-hazardous and hazardous materials.
By utilising Biffa’s upstream supply chain, the on-site team routes material for reuse & recycling, whilst ensuring efficient and compliant treatment Contract Key Performance Indicators are used to monitor and provide feedback to individual construction areas through online reports and metrics such as waste volumes, recycling rates, waste segregation quality, and efficiency of outbound load consolidation.
Biffa's Environmental Advisor conducts regular platform inspections to ensure compliance with the waste hierarchy and delivers educational sessions for construction contractors and service providers to foster a culture of continuous improvement on the site.
Adopting a proactive approach, Biffa consistently identifies areas of potential risk and provides detailed recommendations for mitigation strategies, such as the safe storage and containment of hazardous wastes, and the identification of new waste streams to improve performance against the waste hierarchy.
Value & Results
Through a collaborative partnership and data-driven approach, Biffa continuously monitors and enhances sustainability performance, resulting in:
- A remarkable 94% diversion from landfill: Handling, segregating, and recycling over 15,000 tonnes of materials and approximately a hundred different hazardous materials annually from Hinkley Point C.
- A successful metal and cable recycling programme: Achieved by implementing efficient practices which identifies valuable resources to be recovered and repurposed.
- 99 tonnes in carbon emission savings: By consolidating waste into fewer containers thus reducing the number of waste transfers, Hinkley Point C has substantially decreased its transportation footprint. The team were able to reduce the vehicle movements offsite by 80%, eliminating 6,000 annual loads from the roads, thus reducing local traffic congestion and their environmental impact.
