Waste

Diversion from landfill

Project Targets
  • 80% Beneficial reuse or recycling of all usable spoil (excluding contaminated materials e.g. ACM)
  • 80% Construction and demolition waste (inert and non-hazardous) reused or recycled
  • 40-60% of office waste diverted from landfill
Performance

Construction and demolition waste represent one third of all waste sent to landfill in NSW. JHCPB’s efforts focus on reducing the Project’s contribution to landfill by recovering and reusing waste materials (on site and off site) as much as practicable.

From the commencement of construction to March 2021, JHCPB has diverted 21,866.38 m3 of construction waste from landfill (90%) and reused 4,207,883 tonnes of spoil (97%). Project spoil has been beneficially reused on site for civil works and at various approved offsite reuse sites, such as the Northern Roads Project and Western Sydney Airport. Annual waste to destination audits are also conducted for all waste streams.

JHCPB are currently exceeding both construction and spoil diversion targets but the Project’s office waste diversion is performing under the target. The spoil diversion performance graph below reflects suboptimal performance against IS V1.2 Was-2- Level 2 (40%- 60%). As outlined in the previous annual review, focus during 2020-2021 was set on improving the office waste performance against the target through implementation of a Project Wide Waste Strategy.

The below actions were completed as part of the strategy implementation: 

  • Preparation of an educational campaign on Project-specific waste segregation strategies to all Project staff to be delivered in Q2 2021.
  • Onboarding of new waste services subcontractor to help meet office waste diversion target
  • Clear labelling of colour coded bins across sites to guide decision making

JHCPB is currently investigating the use of recycled materials in concrete. These include:

  • Crushed waste glass as replacement to virgin sand in concrete and flowable fill. 140 tonnes of glass sand used PTD in concrete applications.
  • Recycled polypropylene fibres (Emesh) in lieu of steel reinforcement in non-structural concrete elements (570 kg of 100% recycled plastic fibres used in lieu of steel mesh).

Spoil Diversion Performance

 Landfill diversion rates for construction waste

Office Waste Diversion