Plastic Components on New Zealand Residential Construction Sites

Ferdinand Oswald¹, Tessa Pook¹, Baskoro Laksitoadi¹

1. The University of Auckland

Published in Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024), edited by Ali GhaffarianHoseini, Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, Farzad Rahimian and Mahesh Babu Purushothaman. Springer Nature, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, volume 591, 2025, pages 1290 to 1298. DOI 10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_124.

Abstract

Worldwide, an estimated 8,300 million metric tonnes of virgin plastics were produced as of 2015. Landfills are the most common method of waste disposal in New Zealand, with almost 50% originating from the C&D (Construction & Demolition) industry in 2006. Construction waste also includes the packaging of building materials to protect them from moisture and damage during transport. Typically, construction activities generate about 1–10% of waste relative to the purchased material.This study, funded by BRANZ, aims to provide data in a format conducive to informing life cycle assessments (LCA) in New Zealand. This information will be utilized by BRANZ to enhance their LCAQuick datasheet containing default waste values for building LCA applications.The methodology employed in this research encompasses a quantitative and descriptive approach, implementing data derived from the material cost estimates of the case study new build and a variety of other primary sources. To achieve conclusive results, primary data sources provided by Nigel Benton, the ESRC (Environmental Solutions Research Centre) research team, and the University of Auckland research team have been utilized to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of case studies.This study found that a total of 7,678 kg of plastic components and materials were procured for the construction of the eight terraced houses. The entire project contained an estimated 6,847 kg of built-in plastics. Lastly, an estimated 11% of the plastic procured became waste during construction, 7% of which can be attributed to packaging, 3% to off-cuts, and 1% to other plastics.

Keywords

Session

Presented in Track G, Friday 8 November 2024, 16:30 to 18:30, room WG 1001, Auckland University of Technology. Session chair Dr Funmilayo Ebun Rotimi.

How to Cite

Oswald, F., Pook, T., & Laksitoadi, B. (2025). Plastic Components on New Zealand Residential Construction Sites. In A. GhaffarianHoseini, A. GhaffarianHoseini, F. Rahimian, & M. B. Purushothaman (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024) (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Vol. 591, pp. 1290–1298). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_124

About the Conference

Presented at SASBE 2024, the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, held in Auckland from 7 to 9 November 2024 and chaired by Professors Ali and Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, founders of GDI Academy. The version of record is published by Springer Nature; this page is the conference archive record kept by GDI Academy.