The investment includes a grant of $4.46m from the Ministry for the Environment’s Plastics Innovation Fund (PIF) and is the result of a joint application by Aliaxis with Waste Management New Zealand, Unitec ESRC and the Building Research Association of NZ (BRANZ).

The $50 million fund was set up by Government in 2021 to support ways to reduce plastic waste in the environment. Aliaxis is one of the first four recipients of grants from the fund.

The joint project supports all five desired outcomes for the PIF — minimising plastic waste, supporting circular solutions, protecting the environment from harm, supporting the reduction of imported plastic and improving the behaviour of people and businesses.

The project includes:

• Investing in new plastic recycling facilities across New Zealand which will sort, wash and shred PVC and HDPE plastic from construction and demolition, commercial and industrial sources
• Establishing a network of metropolitan and regional PVC and HDPE collection services in partnership with Waste Management New Zealand
• Carrying out research with Unitec ESRC and BRANZ into practical solutions to minimise plastic construction waste and help to raise awareness of plastic recycling.

Collected plastic will be used at Aliaxis New Zealand’s sites to manufacture the next generation of PVC and HDPE piping systems used in building, infrastructure and agriculture projects across New Zealand, completing the loop and reducing overall plastic resin importation.

Scott Townsend, General Manager of Marketing at Marley (one of four Aliaxis businesses in New Zealand), says that the company is incredibly proud to be among the first to participate in this fund.

He says a key to the success of the project is the partnership with Waste Management to manage collection, sorting and collating of the product before on sending it to Aliaxis for re-processing.

“It was important that we had the collection and the logistical aspect that Waste Management provides. And as Waste Management operates nationally, it allows us to scale nationally, and to collect and recycle reasonably close to source to reduce the transport factor,” he says.

Townsend says that in the past three years he’s seen a significant change of perception across the Building and Construction industry and indeed the general public.

“Sustainability and environmental factors have often been ‘nice-to-have’, as long as they didn't affect the commercial aspects of a project — when it got to the actual, practical end in terms of the installation of the products and systems and delivery of a completed building project to a client, they were lower down the list of priorities."

“Whereas now the environment and waste reduction are definitely more front and centre,” he says.

The Aliaxis group has a global focus on sustainability, with a goal to reduce their carbon footprint by 75% by 2025. They’re already the largest manufacturer of PVC and PE in New Zealand so are well positioned to re-use end-of-life and off-cut PVC and PE. In fact, they have already recycled about 400,000 kilograms so far this year from a variety of external sources both within and outside the building and construction industry.

“PVC and PE are fantastic products when they're used in long-use applications because they're so durable and flexible and can be used in so many different products,” says Townsend.

“There are challenges to overcome in recycling PVC and PE, but the beauty of it is, if you can, the new products go back into service for another 20, 50, even 100 years sometimes — so you can genuinely create a circular loop that's very long-lasting,” he says.

“If you look at it from a whole-of-life perspective, that's a really good story.”