Introduction Packaging manufacture has a significant role within the UK economy. It is estimated to be worth 1.5% of the total GDP or nearly £10 billion in annual turnover^[1]. But, while packaging is an important aspect of daily life, once the products it envelops are uncovered, it is often consigned to waste bins.

As society accepts the need for sustainability and the reuse of scarce resources, packaging materials are being seen as a resource that can be reused, recycled or recovered.

The UK construction industry is a large consumer of natural resources and even though many of these resources are tied-up in the buildings themselves, almost every material and product delivered to site is protected by packaging material.

There are three main types of packaging: primary or sales packaging which contains and protects goods and materials; secondary packaging which groups a number of products together; and tertiary or transit (transport) packaging which protects items during transit. Many materials being delivered to site will be often identified by primary packaging, bound together in secondary packaging and wrapped in or placed on tertiary packaging materials.

Little is known about the amount of packaging waste on construction sites and its level of recycling or recovery. Recognising this as a problem, the Construction Sponsorship Directorate of the DTI funded a two year project to:

• analyse what material is available for reuse, recycling and recovery;

• outline barriers such as contamination and the logistics of collection from site;

• produce guidance on practical measures for industry to improve on-site packaging waste management.

This paper aims to deliver information about the amounts and types of redundant packaging materials ending up on UK construction sites.

It was estimated that in 1997 the UK construction industry handled 148,000 tonnes of packaging material^[2]. More recent extrapolated figures suggest that this figure could be much higher with the housing sector alone handling in excess of 100,000 tonnes in 2000^[3].