New Zealand’s building boom is producing new homes, buildings and essential infrastructure
But it also generates three million tonnes of sector waste that ends up in landfills each year.
However, much of that material is thought to be reusable or recyclable. Instead of letting these valuable resources go to waste, the construction sector is turning to resource recovery experts for help.
Waste as a resource
Half of New Zealand’s landfill waste comes from construction and demolition activities, according to the Ministry For Environment. This waste, when it breaks down in a landfill, produces planet-heating greenhouse gases.
Chris Aughton, CEO of EnviroNZ - a leading environmental services company that specialises in waste and recycling - says the stats are sobering. The good news is leaders in the construction industry are working to bring about positive change.
“There's a greater focus now by organisations and consumers that there is responsible use of resources,” he says.
CEO of EnviroNZ Chris Aughton, says landfill stats are sobering.
CEO of EnviroNZ Chris Aughton, says landfill stats are sobering.
“A lot of construction and demolition waste does have the ability to have a second life or a third life.”
Reducing, reusing, and recycling unwanted materials decreases the amount of construction waste sent to landfills. And using waste as a resource scales down the demand for the extraction of new resources.
“We can give it a better life,” he says. “And it’s a better outcome for the New Zealand environment.”
Making it easier to look after the environment
Construction waste comes in wide variety of forms, including wood, concrete, plastic, plaster board and metal. These are complex waste streams and Aughton says the construction industry is looking for commercial solutions that make it easy to do the right thing.
EnviroNZ’s approach is to work with companies in three ways:
1. Tackling waste starts with prevention
Aughton says it is key to work in partnership with construction industry clients so they understand exactly what waste they are actually producing and how much of it there is.
EnviroNZ is a big proponent of “designing out” waste.
“If we can actually work with the team to actually not create the waste in the first place, that's the best outcome.”
2. Separation at source
For unavoidable waste, separation at the source is key, says Aughton.
On a construction site, that means sorting out common materials like wood, concrete, and plastics into separate streams, and using clear signage and containers to avoid contamination.
“We work with a client to make sure that we get a clean product that we can do something with,” he says.
“If you can strip it out, you can almost do anything with C&D waste.”
3. Using data for better futures
Data plays an important role in combating the waste problem, he adds.
“It is about the client understanding what is happening to their waste and being confident that the right thing is being done with the solutions being put in place.”
“Good, reliable data means a client will know what is being diverted away from a fill site to another use.”
Partnering for environmental impact
As New Zealand’s sustainability shift gathers momentum, a growing number of companies are forging strategic partnerships to minimise their environmental footprint.
Leading the charge is Hamilton-headquartered Foster Construction. Development director Rhys Harvey says the company wanted to use its influence as a force for good in the industry.
“We knew that 50% of landfill comes from within our industry, so it was very important to set a goal and achieve a more sustainable way of getting rid of waste,” he says.
“Foster Construction is a big influencer when it comes to waste. We are in the business of demolishing and constructing commercial buildings, and they're often at scale, so our ability to have an impact is really massive.”
Foster Construction development director Rhys Harvey says the company wanted to use its influence as an industry force for good
Foster Construction development director Rhys Harvey says the company wanted to use its influence as an industry force for good
The company has been able to track its progress through its partnership with EnviroNZ, which provides detailed waste reporting for accountability and transparency.
“We are specialists in what we do and EnviroNZ are specialists in what they do around recycling.
“A really big thing for us was to be able to measure our waste, and EnviroNZ said to us ‘give us your problem and we will give you the solution.
“One of our key goals was to achieve the Toitū enviromark diamond status and carbon neutral status, both which we've now done,” he said.
End markets create new beginnings
Reducing NZ’s construction waste rests on having an end market of waste products, Aughton says.
“If you don't have any market for it then it's not going to be commercially viable and that’s not going to achieve the outcome you want.
“So, for example, we take wood waste and turn it into a biofuel or take concrete waste and crush it back up into aggregate.
“If we have those markets, we can then make a positive impact because we can actually do more and more.”
Treated timber is a case in point. Traditionally it has been difficult to recycle because it contains chemicals, which need to be carefully managed.
Earlier this year EnviroNZ unveiled a specialised piece of heavy machinery, nicknamed “The Beast,” at its Bombay Resource Recovery Centre. The shredder chips 40 tonnes of wood an hour, which is then sent to Golden Bay Cement for use as biofuel – providing an environmental solution that powers industry.
The $2.5 million wood recovery project received $1 million in funding from the Waste Minimisation Fund, which is administered by the Ministry for the Environment.
It is the newest addition to EnviroNZ’s specialist construction and demolition site in South Auckland, which receives and sorts timber, aggregate, concrete, metals and a broad range of other associated materials. Acting as a one-stop shop for building waste that can be put to better use, there's also a concrete recycling facility on site.
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