Sustainable sites for the future
Full skips are a thing of the past for one Adelaide company which has taken building site sustainability to a whole new level. Anna Hayes reports.
Sustainable or green building is becoming increasingly more important as builders and clients are mindful of, and keen to reduce, their footprint on the environment.
Waste has always been an unfortunate side-effect of a building site, with most of the discarded materials loaded into a skip and removed, resulting in high costs for the builder.
Joe Golotta, of Premier Insulation in Adelaide, started Precycle almost two years ago, as a process offered by his family-run company, following a lot of engagement from builders lamenting on the volume of waste created on sites. They would then be charged a huge fee as a skip would be completely filled with insulation cut-offs.
So, as a deal, Premier Insulation began to take these off-cuts for a fee and, soon after, this evolved to taking plasterboard waste.
It was at this point that Paul Greig, co-owner of Precycle and operations manager of Premier Insulation, came up with the idea that would become Precycle. After a trial with a local builder, the business grew from there.
Paul explains: “The Precycle process is a partnership between Precycle and the builder; the more the builder drives and promotes the six stage recovery system, the better result that can be achieved.”
He says it is, naturally, a learning curve for all trades as everyone on a site has a responsibility to act in a positive manner in relation to their effect on the overall outcomes.
“The days of ignoring recycling materials need to end – tradies’ habits are very important in this process.”
Joe’s son Ben Golotta is the sales and marketing director for Precycle and he says that their service is coming at a time when people are very aware of the effect they can have on the environment.
“The positives to moving forward in a sustainable way are that it breeds forward-thinking. Society is at a point of wanting change and each industry must follow. The benefits fall back into your pocket,” he says.
So how exactly does it work?
From, once upon a time, seeing skips full of off-cuts destined for a dump site, the range of uses for repurposed material is almost limitless.
“Through six stages of a worksite clean, we minimise landfill, site hazards, and CO2 emissions,” says Ben, explaining that they identify the important, waste-heavy stages of the building process. At the end of these stages, contractors are instructed to leave off-cuts in a designated area to be collected by Precycle within 48 hours of job completion.
“At each stage we do an entire site clean and feather the bin for any excess of un-contaminated recyclables.”
Precycle takes timber, bricks, steel, REO, plastics, concrete and anything else that could be repurposed. As long as the material is not contaminated, Precycle will take it.
It can then be recycled into a wide variety of items.
“In terms of how the materials are repurposed, that is completely up to the body who takes it. For example, plasterboard is crushed and mixed into soil. A lot of our timber off-cuts are being sent to high schools to help future makers. We are open to anyone who is willing to reuse our materials in an environmentally positive way.”
As a model, Precycle is the first of its kind. Ben says they pride themselves not only on being environmentally positive but also on creating a safe environment for each worksite, and he believes it is why builders should consider using a system like Precycle.
“At the end of the day, we help to facilitate an organised, well maintained work site. It is not just the practice of recycling materials that is beneficial; it is having someone that is responsible across the board, for the entire build.”
Precycle, he says, removes the need for labour in cleaning sites as they make sure the sites are maintained to the highest order, helping to reduce waste and material costs.
“Long term relationships mean we have an understanding of builders’ ordering practices.”
And this knowledge subsequently leads into creating a more sustainable process in the building industry, says Ben who points out that being an environmentally positive and sustainable builder has its difficulties.
“Waste is an enormous part of that. Previously, there were no real alternatives to the current model of dumping everything into a skip and forgetting about it.”
But Precycle is not just about dumping in an environmentally friendly way; it’s about reducing the amount of resources being used from the very beginning.
“If we can create a circular economy in the building industry, we can give back to builders whether it’s materials they haven’t used, or giving them an understanding of what they have consistently over-ordered,” says Ben.