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The large majority of waste generated globally is disposed of without any pre-treatment by means of landfill. Not only is landfill waste an inefficient use of resources, but it is also related with some of the potentially harmful environmental aspects such as: Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, odours, bio aerosols and other emissions to soil and water (leaching pollutants) by point source and diffuse pollution. |
Much of this waste disposed of in landfills can in fact be reused or recycled, thereby reducing the waste disposal volume and related environment impacts. Reuse & recycling also contribute to reduce the consumption need of new resources.
Waste management is a significant challenge for the construction industry and is also one of the main environmental impacts of retailers who produce large amounts of packaging waste.
Good waste management must abide with the principles of the following hierarchy: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and only then dispose of waste in the less environmentally aggressive manner.
DEVELOPMENTWaste management The
ESRD standards include a series of design requirements to maximise the installed waste sorting potential, so that it can be properly sent off, by operational centres, to recycling and reuse operations. A site specific “Waste strategy study” is undertaken to establish adequate provision of space for waste segregation bins and compactors. It also considers separate storage facilities to allow the temporary sorting and storage of recyclable materials generated by the centre's tenants.
Sonae Sierra takes a progressive approach to waste management during construction works, encouraging contractors to operate “Waste management plans”. Aware of the difficulty that arises from construction process environmental impacts being directly controlled by the construction companies, Sonae Sierra is committed to ease the designing-out of waste produced during construction (such as off-site pre-fabrication). Where possible, we specify end of life recycling for building components, which is particularly relevant for our refurbishment activities. In addition, construction companies are required to report back to us the results of their waste management.
MANAGEMENTWaste production The type of waste handled by Sonae Sierra is largely function of tenants’ activities and packaging policies in particular. The company provides a lot of training and encouragement for tenants so they separate waste by type and increase the centre’s proportion of recovered or recycled waste by percentage.
Beyond seeking to influence tenants’ practices, there is little that we can do to reduce the waste produced in our shopping centres as very little of the global waste management process falls within our direct control.
We annually reinforce this service supplier & tenant awareness, endowing all with specific training to achieve ever-increasing waste recovery rates in each shopping centre.
Waste management The bulk of Sonae Sierra’s waste management efforts are focused on waste segregation, management and disposal operations, as to comply with, at least, all existent legal requirements and obtaining a progressive improval of each centre’s recovery waste rate.
We have been measuring, monitoring and targeting waste management and recycling rates in our shopping centres since 2002. This data collection and monitoring is achieved through a centralised online working database which allows each centre‘s management team to input individual environmental performance and to generate reports on waste recycling rates that can be compared across Sonae Sierra’s portfolio. This information is then used to set annual targets to increase the proportions of recycled or reclaimed waste (by weight) across our centres.
Over the past 7 years, we have successfully achieved significant reductions in the amount of waste sent to landfill. This is largely due to our efforts to increase recycling rates by finding new waste recycling opportunities and carrying out awareness-raising & training activities among our staff, tenants and service suppliers. We have set two long term objectives: to attain a minimum 50% recycling rate and a maximum 30% landfill rate. In order to achieve these goals, we are focused on seeking new ways to increase our recycling rates and reduce waste sent to landfill by continuing to review options such as composting at sites where this is not yet possible and the availability of facilities that enable energy recovery from waste.
Sonae Sierra KPIs Sonae Sierra has chosen both Waste recycling rate (%) and Proportion of waste sent to landfill (%) as KPIs. There are also other complementary indicators to measure our performance under this environmental impact area.