Safe, healthy and sustainable demolition

Sustainable demolition activities are at the forefront of the UK Government and many NGO’s policies on waste reduction, increased recycling and reclamation of waste building products at the end of life cycle. Whilst the UK construction industry boasts reduced accident and incident rates the demolition sectors rates are in the ascendency. Despite the demolition sector’s increased use of mechanical applications for structural demolition, the prolonged and prolific method of stripping out buildings by hand remains a major risk and causal factor for injuries. This research has identified the causation of such an increase in accident occurrence offering an insight into how the reduction of accident and incident may be accomplished. Also identified are failings in product and building design that create unsustainable conditions for safe, efficient and cost effective demolition, dismantling and handling of materials at end of life.