Waste Management

• HIA encourages recycling opportunities and reuse of material in the housing industry.
• HIA recognises the limitation of regional operations away from major centres or where the volume of waste does not permit the economic recycling of waste. Support from Government is required to encourage opportunities in this area.
• In an effort to reduce the amount of waste to landfill, HIA will continue to work with state and local governments and waste management bodies to pursue opportunities for minimizing waste created through housing industry activity.
• Further in all new residential development and renovations HIA supports:
  o plans to avoid or minimise waste on housing construction sites;
  o improvements to avoid generating waste such as accurate estimating and ordering of materials;
  o minimisation of waste during building operations;
  o the reuse or recycling of waste where practical
  o efficient and appropriate disposal of unavoidable and excessive waste.
• Industry and Governments should promote voluntary and self regulatory methods to produce a higher level of activity and outcomes beyond what is achievable with a minimum regulatory standard.
• Governments could also
  o facilitate accurate collation and recording of data at landfill and recovery facilities.
  o Introduce incentives to companies prepared to conduct life cycle analysis of a material to assist with the creation of better waste data sets.
  o Encourage recycling and reuse of materials on site.
  o Establish a national materials inventory as a way of identifying the greatest areas of gain in relation to waste management.