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Quality & sustainability

Construction waste

Construction waste is the surplus material produced when building, from timber offcuts and board trimmings to packaging and damaged goods.

Also known as building waste, construction and demolition waste, offcuts, material waste, waste reduction

Construction is one of the largest sources of waste in most countries. On a traditional site, material is cut to fit by hand, stored in the open and sometimes damaged by weather, and offcuts are mixed and hard to reuse.

Factory production reduces waste in several ways: cutting is planned and optimised against stock lengths, material is stored dry, offcuts are sorted at a few stations, and fewer mistakes mean less rework.

Related terms
PrefabricationPrefabrication is the practice of manufacturing building components in a factory and assembling them on site. Crosscut sawA crosscut saw cuts timber across the grain to length and angle, producing the individual members for trusses, walls and floors. Embodied carbonEmbodied carbon is the greenhouse gas emitted in producing, transporting and assembling a building’s materials, as opposed to the emissions from running it.
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