Creating markets for recycled resources es at g Aggre Promotional Campaign to Local port: Authorities to increase the specification, Re procurement and use of recycled and secondary aggregates in Highway and Street Maintenance Project Code: AGG0051 FINAL VERSION 11/05/05 Date of commencement: September 2004 Finish date: April 2005 Written by: Gilli Hobbs, Katherine Adams – BRE Murray Reid, Mary Treen - TRL Published by: The Waste & Resources Action Programme The Old Academy, 21 Horse Fair, Banbury, Oxon OX16 0AH Tel: 01295 819900 Fax: 01295 819911 www.wrap.org.uk WRAP Business Helpline: Freephone: 0808 100 2040 27th May 2005 ISBN: 1-84405-202-8 Prepared by Katherine Adams, Murray Reid and Name Mary Treen Position Project team Approved on behalf of BRE Signature Name Gilli Hobbs Director Centre for Resource Position Management Date 27th May 2005 BRE Bucknalls Lane Garston Watford WD25 9XX Tel : 01923 664000 Fax : 01923 664010 Email : [email protected] Website : www.bre.co.uk 1 Promotional Campaign to Local Authorities – Recycled Roads Executive Summary Over the period January to March, 2005 a series of highly successful interactive workshops was run for local authorities throughout England to help them maximise the use of recycled and secondary aggregates (RSA) in highways and street maintenance. ‘Recycled Roads – Building Knowledge, Engineering Confidence’ was a series of ten events funded by WRAP and managed by BRE and TRL. Almost 500 delegates attended, drawn from over 100 local authorities, their advisors and suppliers and each event in the series generated highly positive feedback and a real appreciation of the opportunities and benefits of using recycled materials. The workshops focused on three key areas : how to make recycling work; how to use the procurement process to specify more recycled material; and how technical and design specifications are readily available for ‘quick wins’. Each of these themes was covered in an interactive session with delegates able to bring forward their own experience and share best practice. A strong local flavour was provided at each event, with regionally-based speakers providing local case study examples. Speakers at the events were drawn from leading exponents in highways, recycling and procurement. These included Murray Reid from TRL, Gilli Hobbs and Katherine Adams from BRE, Steve Biczysko from Atkins and David O’Farrell from Capita Symonds. In addition to speaker presentations and workshops, a small exhibition at each event helped to enhance the delivery of knowledge and provide practical examples of recycled products, techniques and applications. One of the particularly useful outcomes from the workshops was the feedback and injection of ideas from delegates, both during the events and as part of the post-event feedback questionnaire. This has provided a great deal of highly useful information on the opportunities, barriers and requirements for an increased level of recycling for highways maintenance. For example, over two-thirds of questionnaire respondents knew that their organisation had a corporate policy related to sustainability and recycling and delegates reported the need for a stronger link between this type of high level policies and highways maintenance. Delegates also reported that term contracts are the most popular procurement method, closely followed by partnering. Partnering is highlighted as a major opportunity, giving greater scope for innovation, a focus on quality and providing encouragement for continuous improvement. The use of Key Performance Indicators related to resource efficiency and recycling was also recommended as well as giving a greater weighting to quality over price in tender evaluations as a means of encouraging more recycling. Over three-quarters of local authorities use the Specification for Highway Works (SHW) and about a third use this with local variations. The impact the SHW has on local authority highways maintenance and increasing recycled content cannot be over-estimated and it may be beneficial to develop the SHW for different classes of roads. The workshops provided an excellent picture of the current state-of-play in highways recycling. The most popular application for recycled materials is in footways and cyclepaths, followed by bituminous pavements. Typically, County Councils are involved in a wider range of applications than other smaller local authorities. County Council’s in the South East and East Anglia were typically slightly ahead than their counterparts in other regions. 2 Promotional Campaign to Local Authorities – Recycled Roads Smaller local authorities have cited problems including a lack of resources and difficulties in finding suitable sites for storing and processing waste arisings. This suggests there is real need to target these smaller local authorities and address the barriers, as well as to continue to encourage County Councils to continue developing their usage, especially for higher value applications. It is estimated that around 7% of all local authorities (8.5% in England) require recycling in their highways contracts. Undoubtedly, this series of workshops will contribute to an increase in this figure and help WRAP to reach their target ‘to promote and facilitate the specification, procurement and use of recycled and secondary aggregates such that 20% of local authorities are specifying these materials by 2006’. A number of local authorities who attended one or more events have already reported that they are already implementing reuse and recycling policies as a result of the workshops. It is anticipated that at least two more ‘Recycled Roads’ events will be held this Autumn. The workshops were very well attended and in many cases were quickly fully booked and generated a waiting list of would-be attendees. This excellent turnout can be attributed to the focused marketing strategy and the support provided by a number of key organisations including Highways Agency, Institution of Civil Engineers, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, Constructing Excellence, County Surveyors’ Society, Institute of Highways Incorporated Engineers and the Institution of Highways and Transportation. The ‘Recycled Roads’ brand created by this series of workshops is now well established and in a position whereby WRAP could move forward in a proactive way to provide more information, guidance and assistance to local authorities, their contractors and consultants. This could include undertaking similar events in Scotland and Wales, regular newsletters, email alerts, a question and answer or a forum section on the AggRegain website (www.aggregain.org.uk). Importantly, a forward programme of similar styled events would maintain momentum, further enhance uptake and develop the opportunities for recycling. Clearly there is a strong interest amongst local authorities and a ready desire for the tools, guidance and techniques to allow them to increase the size and scope of their recycling activities for highways. 3 Promotional Campaign to Local Authorities – Recycled Roads Contents 1. Introduction 5 2. Description of workshops 7 3. Delegate attendance 13 4. Delegate feedback and assessment of current practice 25 5. Conclusions and recommendations 35 Appendix A – Workshop programme 37 Appendix B – Questionnaire sent to delegates 38 Appendix C – Delegate list 41 Appendix D – Combined list of all Local Authorities attending Recycled Roads 53 Appendix E – Figures of Local Authorities attendance by Council type 56 Appendix F – List of attendees and non-attendees for District and Borough Councils 59 Appendix G – Waiting lists 64 Appendix H – Summary of feedback from 10 workshops 68 4 Promotional Campaign to Local Authorities – Recycled Roads 1 Introduction The aim of the promotional campaign was to provide Local Authorities with sufficient information, practical guidance and motivation to change or improve existing practices for the use of recycled and secondary aggregates in street maintenance. This included those involved in procurement, specification and the use of aggregates in highway and street maintenance. The objectives of the programme were to: • Produce an effective campaign programme, including event content and training materials. • Establish a skilled team of expert presenters, for delivery of the campaign. • Identify, target and attract relevant attendees for each regional event. • Produce and implement a marketing campaign for the events. • Deliver ten regional events with a minimum of 30 Local Authority highway and street maintenance staff, their consultants and contractors, per event. • Produce delegate packs incorporating details of the event presentations and appropriate guidance. • Manage ten regional events, including event logistics and delegate registration • Complete a project review and produce a summary report providing an indication of potential changes in awareness, attitude and practice as a result of the promotional campaign, and recommendations for future measurement of changes in behaviour. This report aims to satisfy the last objective. The workshops entitled ‘Recycled Roads’ were highly successful with over 500 delegates registered, 300 of these from Local Authorities, representing over 100 Local Authorities in the UK. Over three quarters of County Councils were represented and over half of Metropolitan Councils. Initially the promotional campaign was split into two key parts: Part A – preparation of the workshop material and provision of other support related to marketing and delivering the