Construction and Demolition Waste in New Zealand

 

Construction and demolition accounts for around half of all waste to landfill in New Zealand,  totaling 3 million tonnes. Once building materials are thrown away in a skip, they are hidden. Yet 'away' has to be somewhere. This topic has significance and value because it relates to a large yet largely hidden source of waste. 

Construction and demolition waste volumes (tonnes) in Auckland.

Industry perception that it’s too costly to undertake waste minimisation measures like deconstruction.
Auckland Council researchers have undertaken a detailed cost/benefit analysis to understand  under the financial costs and outcomes of implementing deconstruction and building waste minimisation methods and practices in residential developments.

For every dollar you spend on waste minimisation, you’ll get back a minimum of 0.97 but with the potential to reach a CBR of 2.9 – when the benefit to the environment and community are included. 

This Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship project seeks to understand how community-led deconstruction hubs, common in many North American cities can, by deconstructing buildings rather than demolishing them, divert materials from landfill to beneficial uses, creating opportunities for people who may otherwise have difficulty gaining work skills, training and meaningful employment.

The key questions this Fellowship asks are:

- What are the underlying conditions (e.g. community interest, regulation, business partnerships) ensuring that the deconstruction hubs keep deconstructed material in the circular economy as opposed to that material being directed to landfills?
- How do these deconstruction hubs operate at scale, remain financially viable and access key markets for the deconstructed materials.
- What are the activities that haven't worked?
- How can these community-led deconstruction hubs deliver new opportunities for low-skilled or marginalised people and provide wraparound support for those people over the longer term.

The learning from this fellowship will be used to shape the function of any new deconstruction hub for Auckland, ensuring the needs of the community included. - It will provide information to assist in the expansion of capacity of existing community recycling centres in New Zealand. - It will be used to help define best practice for safe and inclusive training and employment opportunities in deconstruction hubs.