Materials Management Plans – Reduce Soil Disposal Costs
Stop paying to dispose of soil you could reuse
Excavated soil can represent one of the largest avoidable costs on a construction project.
When surplus soil is treated as waste, the project may incur the cost of testing, loading, haulage, disposal or recovery, Landfill Tax and then purchasing and transporting replacement material back to site.
A properly prepared Materials Management Plan (MMP) under the CL Definition of Waste Code of Practice can provide a compliant route for suitable excavated materials to be retained and reused.
The result can be substantial cost savings, fewer vehicle movements and a significant reduction in the environmental impact of your project.
How much could an MMP save?
The real value of an MMP is not simply the cost of avoiding disposal.
Every tonne of suitable soil retained on a project can potentially avoid several costs:
- Off-site haulage
- Disposal or recovery charges
- Landfill Tax, where applicable
- Imported soil or aggregate
- Haulage of replacement material to site
- Additional waste administration and documentation
- Programme delays associated with soil movements
This means that one tonne successfully reused can generate savings at both ends of the process — avoiding the cost of taking material away and avoiding the cost of bringing replacement material back.
Example: 10,000 tonnes of soil
Consider a project generating 10,000 tonnes of suitable excavated soil.
If the material is removed from site, indicative costs might include:
Exporting the soil
Haulage: £12/t
Disposal/recovery: £12/t
Lower-rate Landfill Tax, where applicable: £8.65/t
Potential export cost: £326,500
If 10,000 tonnes of replacement material then needs to be imported:
Material: £15/t
Delivery: £10/t
Potential import cost: £250,000
Potential conventional earthworks cost: £576,500
If the material can instead be legitimately retained and reused under an appropriate Materials Management Plan, a substantial proportion of this expenditure could potentially be avoided.
Even allowing £20,000–£30,000 for additional assessment, testing, management, MMP preparation, Qualified Person involvement and verification, the potential saving in this example could be approximately:
£550,000
That is approximately:
£55 saved for every tonne successfully reused
Figures are illustrative. Actual savings depend upon material classification, site circumstances, haulage distance, disposal route, treatment requirements, replacement material requirements and regulatory considerations.
The savings can be even greater for contaminated soils
Where excavated material would otherwise require disposal to landfill at the standard rate of Landfill Tax, the financial case for treatment and reuse can become considerably greater.
For example, where 5,000 tonnes of material can legitimately be treated and reused rather than disposed of, avoiding standard-rate Landfill Tax alone could represent hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Add the avoided landfill gate fee, haulage and replacement-material costs and the potential project saving can exceed £1 million.
The important question therefore isn't simply:
“How much will an MMP cost?”
It is:
“How much will this project spend if we don't have one?”
Find the lowest-cost compliant solution before you excavate
The greatest savings are normally achieved when soil management is considered before excavation starts.
Early assessment gives the project team the opportunity to consider:
Reuse on site
Can suitable excavated soils be incorporated elsewhere within the development?
Treatment and reuse
Can unsuitable material be treated to make it suitable for its intended use?
Material movements
Can soils be transferred between appropriate sites where the regulatory requirements are satisfied?
Waste recovery
Where reuse is not possible, is there a lower-cost compliant recovery route?
Disposal
Only material for which there is no suitable reuse, treatment or recovery option should need to follow the most expensive disposal routes.
Why use Soils Management?
Soils Management looks at excavated materials from both a technical and commercial perspective.
Our objective is not simply to produce an MMP.
Our objective is to identify the lowest-cost compliant solution for your construction soils.
We can support projects with:
- Materials Management Plans
- CL Definition of Waste Code of Practice compliance
- Soil and waste classification
- WM3 waste assessment
- Soil reuse strategies
- Contaminated soil management
- Treatment and reuse options
- Environmental permitting
- Mobile treatment solutions
- Deposit for Recovery permits
- Disposal and recovery route assessment
- Verification and validation reporting
By considering these options together, we can help minimise the amount of material leaving your project and reduce the volume of replacement material that needs to come back.
Turn surplus soil from a cost into an opportunity
If your project is expecting to generate significant quantities of excavated soil, speak to us before excavation begins.
A relatively small investment in early soil-management planning can potentially prevent hundreds of thousands of pounds of unnecessary disposal and import costs.
How much could your project save?
Send us your estimated soil volume, site location and basic ground investigation information, and Soils Management can review the likely management options and identify where the biggest potential savings may be available.
Providing peace of mind whilst saving you money.