Taranaki woman’s crusade to tackle plastic use in construction industry

A Taranaki woman’s crusade to highlight the use of plastic building wrap is part of a bigger conversation she wants to have about tackling construction waste, but it’s a topic already on the minds of some in the sector.

Oakura photographer Jane Dove Juneau has always had an interest in the environment, so when she was walking in her neighbourhood recently and saw a “huge plastic box” or more precisely, a residential build enshrined in the white wrap, it got her thinking.

“I decided to look into it.”

While some of the benefits of the building wrap including weather protection, and reducing construction delay times, Dove Juneau believed the building wrap was an “extravagant” use of plastic, and as it was not always recyclable, it ended up being dumped.

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She said this was at odds with the country’s environmental goals to minimise waste, and the move away from single use plastic, which was one of the drivers behind the ban on plastic shopping bags in 2019.

“Every choice you make, you should be thinking is this the best thing we can do for the future of the planet,” she said.

Waste in the construction and demolition business is an issue.

In Auckland alone, the two sectors create about 570,000 tonnes of waste every year, the equivalent to 23,155 shipping containers of rubbish.

And while building wrap is technically recyclable, there are reasons why it can end up at the tip, including how dirty it had become while in use.

The single-use nature of the wrap product is something Paul Cunningham, of New Plymouth-based scaffolding and rigging company Cunningham Construction, is consciously moving away from using, as a means to reduce its waste footprint.

He said certain jobs did dictate the type of building wrap which could be used, but wherever possible, his company advocated for the “environmentally friendly” option.

This was a system which was reusable, or able to be repaired if damaged, and then upcycled to make new sheets of wrap when it was no longer used on site.

This included an increase use of the reusable Keder track system, which uses PVC sheeting, he said.

The system was currently being utilised on the entire roof and top section of walls at the Te Atiawa-owned Atkinson Building site, which is currently undergoing extensive renovations.

Cunningham said it represented a “huge step change” in the industry.

”The reasons for the sustainable initiatives we are collectively putting forward are not commercial or compliance driven but is down to us wanting to lead the way by continuously seeking to improve our environmental and social performance, so we can in fact be the sustainable local business we see ourselves as.”

Cutting building waste is an issue on the radar of the New Plymouth District Council as well.

From August last year, anyone applying for a building consent for non-residential building work with an estimated value of $500,000 or higher had to submit a construction waste reduction plan for approval.

The council was also building a commercial waste sorting facility at Colson Rd which it hoped would be completed later this year.