Drywall recycling is right treatment for Hospital

Good drywall design and practice - coupled with Knauf Drywall's plasterboard recycling service - helped contractor Kier Eastern achieve award-winning environmental performance at an Ipswich Hospital

Working with Knauf Drywall and dry lining subcontractor BR Hodgson, Kier Eastern was able to minimise the quantities of plasterboard waste sent to landfill from the new Garrett Anderson Centre at the Ipswich Hospital.

Plasterboard waste is virtually inevitable in drywall construction, but both the gypsum cores and the paper liners of clean waste are recyclable.

The Garrett Anderson Centre is a GBP26 million treatment centre, built for the Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust by Kier Eastern.

The four storey, 8,000m2 building is linked to the existing hospital, and contains a range of medical departments and care facilities.

Internal drywalls involved about 22,000m2 of plasterboard and generated more than 40 tons of offcuts and other waste, all of which was recycled.

As part of its environmental policy, Kier Eastern has a strategic commitment to reducing waste generation - so at the Garrett Anderson Centre it undertook various initiatives to minimise and manage plasterboard waste.

This won a National Silver Award at the International Green Apple Awards for Environmental Best Practice - and gave Kier Eastern the Environmental Awareness Award at the Evening Telegraph Business Awards in Peterborough for the second year running.

As supplier of drywall material, Knauf Drywall in partnership with BR Hodgson suggested that Kier Eastern used the waste take-back scheme.

Kier Eastern and BR Hodgson also drew on Knauf Drywall design expertise in the early stages of the project to assist with reducing wastage through rationalising drywall systems and types of plasterboard required.

It specified 2,700mm (room height) boards to avoid horizontal joints near the ceiling which would require additional work in jointing and board cutting - and more waste.

Kier Eastern and BR Hodgson undertook a cost benefit analysis based on normal wastage factors and concluded that the Knauf Drywall recycling service was cost neutral when compared with disposal to landfill.

Recycling targets were set and plans were based on expected quantities of waste at various stages of the project, to ensure containers would be available where and when needed.

The 35 yard roll-on, roll-off container was selected as the most cost effective option as there was adequate space at the Garrett Anderson Centre site for the container and associated vehicle manoeuvres.

BR Hodgson staff were responsible for placing plasterboard waste in mini-skips on loading platforms at each level of the building.

The mini-skips were moved by crane to the main container, where the waste board was transferred and packed flat.

Containers were replaced on average every 14 days, with about 9 tons of recyclable material returning to the Knauf Drywall factory each time.

Kier Eastern considers that the approaches taken to minimise and manage plasterboard waste were successful.

It found that Knauf Drywall had developed a flexible take back scheme that would be easy to implement on construction projects of varying sizes and in different locations.

In addition, through legislative changes and increasing disposal costs, economic paybacks can be realised through waste minimisation and management.

These incentives have reinforced Kier Eastern's commitment to addressing plasterboard waste on all projects.

Knauf Drywall manufactures a full range of plasters, plasterboards, insulating laminates, dry flooring, drywall accessories, and metal sections for domestic, commercial and public sector applications.

Knauf Drywall pioneered carbon neutral plasterboard in the UK with Knauf Futurepanel.

Knauf Drywall also actively promotes recycling from building sites and has a zero waste policy in its energy efficient factories at Sittingbourne in Kent and Immingham on Humberside.

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