At Windsor Construction, we’re all about constructing homes that last. We’re also all about building a sustainable future which is what drove our team’s focus during our latest project in New Lynn – we’ve diverted an impressive 91% of construction and demolition waste from landfills.
A Collaborative Effort
This project was a collaboration between Auckland Council, Unitec’s Environmental Solutions Research Centre (ESRC), developer Benton Ltd, and our team at Windsor Construction. Together, we tackled one of construction’s biggest challenges: plastic waste. With Auckland’s construction industry sending a staggering 568,935 tonnes of waste to landfill each year — twice the amount of household refuse — we knew change was essential.
Starting Strong
2021 marked the project’s beginning with the careful removal of an existing house on the site – repurposed by Junk Run. This step set the tone for our waste-diversion efforts. As we prepared the site for an eight-unit residential townhouse complex, ESRC provided crucial training to our staff and subcontractors on how to sort plastics effectively, ensuring everyone was equipped to make a real difference.
Conscious-building
With a clear plan, we moved forward. ESRC managed the sorting of plastic and hazardous waste, categorising plastics into pipes, polystyrene, and other materials. Junk Run handled the collection and management of timber, cardboard, scrap metal, fence palings, posts, paper, and sweepings.
A total of 22,434 kg of waste was collected during construction and audited by Junk Run and ESRC, of which 18,442 kg was recycled or repurposed. Plastic waste made up 830kg of this collected waste, which was audited by ESRC as follows:
- 33 per cent soft plastics
- 24 per cent polystyrene
- 19 per cent pipes
- 6 per cent other hard plastics
Of the soft plastics, about 32 per cent has been recycled, and it is expected that the reminder will be sent off soon. Also sent off for recycling were 156 kg of pipes to Marley, and 201 kg of polystyrene to Divert NZ. Currently, 54 per cent of plastic waste has been recycled, and it is estimated that the outcome will be 80 per cent
The result? A remarkable 91% of waste from our New Lynn site was diverted from landfill, demonstrating that with the right approach, we can significantly reduce our environmental footprint.
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