CTA submissions to Auckland Council have often included words like the following: 

“We suggest that there should be much less building waste. Too much existing building fabric gets thrown out, including native timber, and there should be the necessary investment in education and the development of rules to encourage or compel adaptive reuse.”

So it was pleasing to see this recent Our Auckland article, which included the following:

“Valuable building materials that would otherwise have ended up in landfill have been recycled thanks to a joint effort between Auckland Council and contractors.

The materials come from a house, garage and carport on land recently acquired by Auckland Council to be incorporated into an expanded Auckland Botanic Gardens footprint.

A range of different materials were salvaged from the buildings including windows, curtains, bricks, Matai timber flooring, corrugated iron, iron roofing, joist timber, wooden joinery, roofing trusses, and even a spa pool. In total, more than 43 cubic metres of resources were recovered for potential reuse.

…

Onehunga Community Recycling and Henderson Demolition worked in partnership with Auckland Council to remove and repurpose the structures on the site. Onehunga Community Recycling Centre is a charitable registered company formed by The Synergy Projects Trust and Localised. It is the first Māori-Pasifika led recycling centre in Aotearoa.

Jamal Muavae, manager of Onehunga Recycling Centre says he was thrilled to be involved in the project. “We are trying to make a change in the demolition industry by recognising the value of used building materials, salvaging them and passing them on to others in the community to use again.”

Image: Auckland Council