Environmentalists launch a 'game-changer' to tackle mountains of building and demolition waste
A new green "ecolabel" has been launched to help tackle the truckloads of construction and demolition waste going to New Zealand landfills.
Research by the Building Research Association of New Zealand shows the C&D industry is one of the biggest waste producers in the country with C&D waste estimated to make up half of the waste going to landfills.
A new specification,EC-59 C&D Waste, has been developed setting out the requirements that C&D waste companies will be required to meet to be licensed to use the Government-backed Environmental Choice New Zealand (ECNZ) label.
To be licensed to use the new ecolabel firms will have to show they have meet a strict set of criteria on how they minimise and reuse and recycle construction and demolition waste.
She is pictured at the Waitakere Refuse and Recycling Centre with Auckland Council manager of waste solutions Parul Sood.
The ECNZ label identifies products and services that meet stringent, best-practice environmental criteria. Already, over 50 New Zealand companies have the ECNZ label for more than 1500 products. Some of those products are floor coverings, furniture, fittings, paints, laminates and wood panels, carpets, insulation and many more.
The specification has been developed by the New Zealand Ecolabelling Trust, a not-for-profit trust that runs the Environmental Choice New Zealand eco-labelling programme on behalf of the Ministry for the Environment
The new specification has been developed in part because of the lack of strong regulatory controls requiring C&D waste minimisation. Auckland Council contributed a grant towards its development.
The trust's general manager Francesca Lipscombe said the trust believed the new specification would be a game-changer for waste management in the construction industry.
A feasibility study by the trust also revealed that the biggest issue was the amount of material going straight into the landfill when it could be reused.