Construction and Demolition Waste
Waste from construction and demolition (C&D) forms a significant part of the waste going to York Valley Landfill, and also represents a loss of valuable resources which could be reused.
Waste from construction and demolition (C&D) forms a significant part of the waste going to York Valley Landfill, and also represents a loss of valuable resources which could be reused.
In addition to this, greenhouse gas emissions from building, operating and removing buildings means that New Zealand’s built environment is responsible for around 20% of the country’s carbon footprint.
Council deconstructed the Mediterranean Warehouse in Nelson. Learn more information about how this project was delivered (3.3MB PPTX).
To learn more about this area, here are some useful resources:
- Increasingly buildings are being designed to Green Star standards – read more about this here through the New Zealand Green Building Council: www.nzgbc.org.nz/green-star
- BRANZ (the Building Research Association of New Zealand) has an extensive range of resources, including for deconstruction: www.branz.co.nz/sustainable-building/reducing-building-waste/planning/planning-deconstruction/
Additional resources are available through the Zero Waste Network (supported by Auckland Council and Envision). These include short and accessible video clips:
Deconstruction is easy: https://youtu.be/5FYRTwkhprM
Uses for materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISQMqzI_CE8
Things need to change: https://youtu.be/1x_dYtA4Q2Y
The Zero Waste Network have made an open access Construction & Deconstruction resource pack. https://padlet.com/ZWNAotearoa/canddpack
If you are looking for more information or have a case study to share, please contact rethinkwaste@ncc.govt.nz .