Gib, pipes, bolts, taps and even a cracked spa bath are just some of the building materials now being diverted from landfill in a trial to minimise the waste from construction and demolition.
Nearly half of the landfill in Nelson Tasman is estimated to come from construction and demolition, prompting the trial at the Richmond Resource Recovery Centre to divert as much as possible for reusing and recycling.
The trial diverted 8.5 tonnes of material from landfill in its first three weeks of operation, with 70 per cent of that being reusable and 30 per cent recyclable.
Tasman District Council’s waste minimisation officer Cam Algie says the trial is aimed mainly at smaller loads of building and demolition material from industry, as well as domestic material. It’s early days, but Cam hopes the number of trailer loads will keep increasing and keep more building waste out of the landfill at York Valley behind Bishopdale.
“Despite this being a good start, we would like to see much more use of the service. We encourage customers to take a little extra time needed to sort their load and go through the diversion loop before dropping off remaining landfill.”
He says that will not only save people money, but also make the service more cost-effective and more likely to continue beyond the trial, which was planned to finish in early October but will likely go longer.
Recyclable material goes to recycling, including Gib which ends up in compost, while reusable material is sent to a not-for-profit partner for sale to the public. Cam says that, anecdotally, it is not uncommon for some of the materials to be sold within a day of arrival.
Milestone Homes Nelson Bays’ general manager, Adam Hills, is incredibly passionate about reducing waste in the industry, but says it is no easy task. Right now, the company, in partnership with Waste Management, is trialling different skips on a residential build in The Meadows, for recycling, reusing and rubbish, parallel to the minimisation trial.
“It’s quite difficult in a residential setting,” he says. “People (the public) use skips for their own waste.”
He says there was recently four tyres and a barbeque thrown into one skip and he estimates public rubbish accounts for one skip on every build. Between the alliance of six larger building companies building about 300 houses a year, that’s about $90,000 in costs that increases the cost of building houses. Public rubbish also contaminates materials that could have otherwise been recycled or reused and hence the trial site has a sign stating it is a waste minimisation site.
The other challenge is building materials that cannot be recycled or reused and he says government and councils need to do more, so that either alternative products can be used or it is easier to recycle. For example, he says polystyrene makes up a sizeable chunk of builders’ waste and goes to landfill, but there are compacting machines that would compact waste so that it could be taken to Blenheim where it can be recycled.
Despite the challenges, he wants to reduce waste as much as possible.
“Rather than say it’s too hard, we want to give it a go. I would love a sign that was a stamp of approval that we’re doing as much as we can to minimise waste.”
Running parallel with the trial, a construction alliance in the region is also working on reducing the burden of waste into landfill from larger building companies that rely on skips onsite.
