Plasterboard manufacturers in Great Britain have signed up to an agreement that is set to bring a significant reduction in the amount of waste plasterboard sent to landfill.

The voluntary agreement was initiated and brokered by the Gypsum Products Development Association (GPDA) which, in Great Britain, represents Knauf Drywall, British Gypsum and Lafarge Plasterboard.

The GPDA approached Defra last year with an outline proposal and has since been working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and the government-funded Market Transformation Programme to define the targets to which the industry will work.

Formalised within the Ashdown Agreement signed, the targets are:


to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill from manufacturing operations in Great Britain to 10,000 tonnes/year by 2010
to increase the take back and recycling of plasterboard waste, for use in plasterboard manufacture, to 50% of new construction waste arisings by 2010.
In addition, all parties have agreed to work with other parts of the supply chain to develop processes to reduce the amount of wastage generated in new construction and to make further progress towards achieving the ultimate objective of zero plasterboard waste to landfill.

Ian Wardle, Construction Programme Manager for Materials Recycling at WRAP, said:

"The Ashdown Agreement is important not just because of the impact on waste reduction but because it is a voluntary initiative. Plasterboard is an increasingly popular product; approximately 2.5 million tonnes were used in construction in 2006, and some 300,000 tonnes of plasterboard waste was generated. It is essential that we find effective ways of reducing and recycling this waste. "