Mudataco: What the circular economy means for my organisation

What does your organisation do?

Mudataco Limited has developed ConstructionWastePortal.com; an integrated platform for forecasting, costing and monitoring waste for the UK construction and waste management industries.

A poor understanding of likely waste costs and volumes at tender stage typically leads to poor costing and inefficient waste strategies for construction projects. Our tool provides more accurate estimates of waste volumes, types and costs based on location specific data from over 900 construction projects that have been undertaken in the UK.

How does your organisation support the circular economy?

We are passionate about reducing waste in the construction industry, whether that’s time, resources or materials. By having a more robust understanding of waste volumes and costs at tender stage, project teams can draw up improved site waste management plans and understand where and how cost reductions can be achieved. This encourages better planning and segregation plus reusing and recycling at project delivery stage.

How is your approach innovative?

As far as we are aware ConstructionWastePortal.com is a unique platform. It uses a significant data set to help companies forecast costs and volumes of waste from construction projects which will improve on site management of waste.

What are your key challenges?

The key challenge for us is effective marketing. There is significant support for the website, politically and within industry bodies which has been borne out through the number of early subscriptions to the site. The website launched in late February 2020, and regaining the early impetus gained prior to Covid-19 impacts will be a key challenge for the business once ‘normality’ returns.

Where do you see the organisation in five years’ time?

We have developed an intelligent system; the more data collected, the smarter the system becomes. In five years, we hope to have developed the tool to be able to forecast a range of other aspects of construction projects such as fuel use and water consumption through to more complex areas such as the carbon emissions and embodied carbon of the materials used.

We will continue to diversify, adapt and respond to the requirements or requests of both industries to maintain our leading position in a market which we have essentially created.

What message would you give to other organisations to encourage them to work on their circular economy?

Businesses need to have circularity at their heart to flourish long term, this is not a ‘greenwashed’ fad which will disappear with time. There will become a stage in the future where the concept will drive the whole design and construction philosophy.

Quoting recycling performance as a circularity credential will no longer be viable as this will need to be considered at the client/design stage. My message would be: increase your understanding, increase your chances of driving change and look to gain market share by doing so.