The ACT’s environment tsar recently toured the territory’s only plant recycling construction and demolition waste on-site. Commissioner Dr Maxine Cooper visited Village Building Company’s ‘Brindabella at Macgregor’ development, where the company is avoiding $2000 per house in landfill fees.

Dr Cooper said the new estate “was the only place recycling materials on-site from building and construction waste”.

“It’s the first of its kind in the ACT and I simply wanted to know more and went to have a look.”

In 2005 the Australia Institute claimed Canberrans had the highest rate of wasteful consumption in Australia. It suggested the fundamental and first step in managing waste – that is, waste avoidance – needed to be given greater priority.

The Village Building Company has taken that mantra to heart. Its GM for housing policy and sustainability, John Kenworthy, gave the history to the company’s waste avoidance and minimisation efforts.

“We looked at our waste and how it was generated. To reduce waste we put a lot of thought into building dimensions so they could coincide with standard building material sizes,” he said.

To give an example, instead of about 10% plasterboard waste from a standard bedroom, ‘right-sizing’ the building means there is virtually no waste. They also got into on-site recycling.

“The recycling plant was set up in 2008 after finding waste management was a significant cost,” said Kenworthy.

“We’ve always had an inclination to sustainability but what prompted this move was it was costing $2000 per house in landfill fees.”

Different classes of waste are separated outside each building site with a regular collection service. It costs more to process materials than they’re worth, but Kenworthy said “the real savings come from not having to collect and transport materials to landfill”.

It is not uncommon in Europe and the UK for companies to use this system and much of Village’s recycling equipment is imported.

The ACT State of the Environment report 2003-2007 said construction waste fell over the period by 70.5% due to provision of recycling infrastructure and facilities. The remaining 20,792 tonnes (11% of total waste to landfill) requires further reduction – and perhaps on-site reuse.

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