Building materials
If you are thinking about renovating your home or building a new home, you can reduce the environmental impact of your building project in a range of ways.
The waste and pollution created from manufacturing building materials and products isn't always obvious but can often be reduced.
Plan ahead
When you start planning your building project, work with your builder and designer to plan how you will minimise waste. Discuss ways to minimise waste during the project and recycle leftover building materials.
Reduce
When you are designing your home or extension, think about what you need and see if you can design a smaller house or extension than you were originally planning. For example, many people design large dining rooms, formal living areas and extra bathrooms, but rarely use them.
A smaller house is the most effective way to conserve resources and reduce waste. It will also be cheaper to build and much cheaper to run in the long term. Lighting, heating and maintenance are all cheaper in small houses.
Materials
Embodied energy is the energy consumed to make a product and can include energy needed to:
- Mine and process raw materials
- Transport raw materials
- Manufacture the finished product or parts of the product
- Transport the product
You can make a big difference to the amount of resources used, pollution generated and waste sent to landfill by reusing, recycling and buying recycled building materials for your home or renovation.
Reused materials
When existing buildings are demolished or modified, the original materials are often made available for reuse. These can be cheaper than new building materials and may have a reduced environmental impact.
Recycled materials
Use recycled materials and materials with high recycled content wherever you can - this helps to create a market for recycled resources and increase the viability of recycling.
More information
See these resources about reducing waste when building:
Why do it?
- Recycled products can be cheaper than new products
- You can add historic and unique touches by reusing products and materials
- You'll be keeping good quality, reusable and useful materials out of landfill
- Your building project could be an example for others on how to build low impact, comfortable and economical buildings
Did you know?
Up to 40 per cent of the waste generated by Australians is building waste.
What can I do?
Take action
Page last modified: 20 Aug 2009