Waste In The Construction Industry

Reducing Waste Within The Industry 

Construction is the second biggest sector that contributes to Australia’s waste issue, accounting for 16.8%, only just falling behind Manufacturing at 16.9%. Every year, the construction industry generates approximately 20 million tons of waste that goes straight into landfill.

There are multiple factors that contribute to this ever expanding problem. With the housing market continuing to skyrocket, construction, and demolition (C&D) has become the norm. In saying this C&D is not the only contributor, with construction at an all-time high, new products and materials are in-turn also following suit and entering the market at a rapid rate. This causes major issues for the construction industry as products can often over-promise and under-perform. This is not only an issue aesthetically but also functionally which can be very concerning.

Take ACP cladding for example; a specific type of ACP cladding was found to be non-compliant with Australian regulations and was also found to be combustible. The product was not marketed as such; this is known as façade compliancy. This resulted in thousands of newly built homes and buildings becoming at risk of containing potentially flammable exterior cladding. The removal of the cladding is necessary however has become another contributor to the waste issue in the construction industry. 

To limit the amount of waste created by façade compliancy, companies such as Panel Cycle have taken initiative to step in before this becomes a bigger issue. Panel Cycle diverts the material from landfill and allows it to be processed and recycled in their approved waste facility. Although this may seem costly and time consuming, Panel Cycle makes it easy with a full solution, they collect the materials directly from the site and transport them to the approved waste facility and only costs 1% of total re-cladding expenses. It is really that simple. They then break down and sort the material into aluminium and polyethylene which can then be repurposed into new products, thus creating a circular lifecycle for the materials, rather than the linear model of take-make-waste.