After a five-day on-site assembly we produced about half a high sided trailers worth of rubbish.
This is more than I would have liked but the point is waste is hard to eliminate but it can be reduced. Having seen the waste first hand being involved in the build process I can now look at starting conversations with suppliers about waste product and packaging. Paper and cardboard packaging will be recycled but soft plastic packaging is problematic. Certain materials need to be kept dry because if they were water damaged this would only lead to more waste.
This reduced amount of waste removed the need for a skip which saves cost especially when the site is 200km return from Christchurch.
The contents of this trailer include the following:
Timber off cuts
There are not many of these as most timbers that went into the SIP build were installed off-site so only those brought to site needed to be trimmed to their final length. We did have some timber members where the size was know and these were brought to site cut to the required length.
Timber off cuts over about 500mm will be reused for blocking etc during the internal fitout.
Empty Tubes of glue and expanding foam
While a lot of glue and expanding was installed off-site there is the requirement for this between panels and where timber plates are site installed into the SIP.
Plastic sheet
The plastic sheet brought to site was from the protective wrap the SIP panels came in. We used some of this to protect the top of the SIP walls until the roof panels were installed. The plastic wrap created the largest volume of the waste on the trailer.
Wraps and Tapes
Packaging from wraps and tapes makes up a small portion of the waste and there is some wrap off cuts.
I would welcome suggestions about how any of this waste can be recycled.
If you need a hand with a Prefab Build come talk to me.
