Andrew Kent from REMADE:South East one of our partners on BRIDGE visited the University to meet with the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (PABS) and the School of Environmental Technology (SET) to discuss potential processing for various waste streams. He then came to the Faculty of Arts to meet with Toni Hicks, Stefano Santilli, Carolyn Watt and students from Textiles and 3D Design to show us some of the samples he had brought. The main purpose of REMADE is to minimise waste by diverting materials from landfill . The Site Waste Management Plan Regulations introduced in 2007 created incentives for the demolition and construction industries to segregate waste on site. It is also now illegal to dump plasterboard, which has been found to let off toxic gases when it becomes mixed with other material waste in the ground. Systems have been developed to retrieve the gypsum from plasterboard and now 45% is re-used.He showed us samples of wood waste and paper waste separated from plasterboard. Other significant waste streams that they are trying to find applications for are plastics – from pipes and packaging and large bulky items such as mattresses.
