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Building Construction waste Photo:
Despite efforts from governments, councils and others over decades to reduce construction waste - it remains a stubbornly high portion of what is sent to landfill - as much as half.
A recent paper by Building Research Association of New Zealand found factors behind the building sector's waste issue included poor design of materials, lack of sorting on-site and a lack of recyclers.
There are some pockets in the industry where there has been success at getting waste under control. One of those was Auckland Master Builders vice president Nigel Benton's build site at New Lynn where more than 90 percent of waste was diverted from landfill.
Nigel talks to Kathryn about that project, and discusses why some of the responsibility of dealing with waste must go back to suppliers. BRANZ principal social scientist Casimir MacGregor also talks to Kathryn about what is needed to develop a more systemic approach to dealing with waste from construction.