Unlocking Circular Potential in Construction

Plastics New Zealand is proud to share a teaser from our upcoming C&D Plastics Working Group Report.

We collaborated with industry experts across the value-chain to tackle the challenges and opportunities impacting plastics circularity in the construction and demolition sector. We’re excited to share the report soon - check out some of our findings below!

Did you know that Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) plays a key role in helping homes meet Healthy Homes Standards? EPS is a low cost, low emissions option to achieve the required insulation level for comfort and energy efficiency in homes across Aotearoa.

The impact of effective insulation is exemplified through the 2022 analysis of EECA’s ‘Warmer Kiwi Homes’ programme, which found an annual energy saving of 1.08% for homes retrofitted with insulation.

Importantly, New Zealand’s EPS sector voluntarily phased out all HBCD (a harmful flame retardant that has since been banned globally) by 2017, ensuring EPS is a safe material choice.

However, EPS can be problematic if not managed properly. In our report, we applied the waste hierarchy to explore the role of EPS in the construction and demolition sector to identify opportunities to improve overall circularity.

This included analysing the use of alternatives, reuse and recycling potential, and the behaviour change needed to mitigate pollution.

Key findings from our working group report include:

✅ Simple practices such as ordering made-to-size products, using hot wire cutters when cutting on-site cutting, and properly containing offcuts and end-of-life material helps to prevent pollution.

✅ Steps can be taken to advance existing material take back schemes that NZ’s EPS manufacturers have been running for their customers over 20 years.

✅ Many alternatives to EPS struggle with the same post use challenges and require larger volumes of material to meet the same insulation levels – to ensure sustainable outcomes, whole-of-life analysis of different options for individual projects is needed.

Our report outlines further actions needed to drive plastics circularity in the construction sector. Thanks to all stakeholders involved in this piece of work.

Stay tuned for more findings from the report and join us in exploring circular solutions for construction and demolition plastics!