Glossary

Construction and demolition - refers to the process of building or demolishing domestic or commercial buildings, excluding infrastructure.

Area for disposal of inert material that does not require the high containment standards of an engineered landfill. Also used to refer to such material. The material deposited in a cleanfill will typically be from construction and demolition activities and will generally comprise soil, rock, concrete, bricks and similar inert material so does not include compostable materials, hazardous or toxic materials.

Waste derived from the construction or demolition of buildings, structures, and infrastructure. This includes residential, industrial, and commercial structures, pipelines (above-ground and underground assets), roading, land development (including site clearance for building or subdivision construction), and regular slips or other debris not associated with a major natural hazard.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation (Information Requirements) Amendment Regulations 2023 (SL 2023/262) Contents – New Zealand Legislation

Schedule 2 of the amendments includes a Newly inserted Schedule 3 for Activity categories and a description for what activities generate construction and demolition waste.

Solid waste typically including building materials, packaging, metal, plasterboard, timber, concrete and rubble resulting from construction, renovation and demolition of buildings.

Rapid destruction of a building with little removal of salvageable items.

The process of taking a building apart, storing and handling materials in a manner that achieves maximum salvage and recycling of materials and safe removal and disposal of hazardous materials.

Taking a building or building components apart in a manner that achieves maximum salvage and recycling of materials.

A facility, including a landfill, at which:

• waste is disposed of, and
• at which the waste disposed of includes household waste, and
• that operates at least in part as a business to dispose of waste, and

any other facility or class of facility at which waste is disposed of that is prescribed as a disposal facility.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation Act 2008 and Climate Change Response Act

Timber products that have been manufactured from wood pulp, fibre or veneer, for example, fibreboard or plywood.

Explosive, corrosive, toxic or reactive.

Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning.

A site for the disposal of waste materials by burial. Historically, landfills have been the most common methods of organised waste disposal and remain so in many places around the world.

Exhibiting none of the characteristics of hazardous substances.

Personal protective equipment.

Extraction of materials or energy from waste or diverted material for further use or processing; and

Includes making waste or diverted material into compost.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation Act 2008

Any process by which waste and recyclable materials are transformed or collected for the purpose of being transferred into new products.

Discarded material that is practically able to be recycled.

Source/Citation: DRAFT National Waste Data Framework, WasteMINZ 2024

Changes made to a building including structural alterations, additions and redecorating.

Means any waste remaining after diversion of recyclable or recoverable materials or other materials requiring special treatment or disposal.

Source/Citation: DRAFT National Waste Data Framework, WasteMINZ 2024

The further use of waste or diverted material in its existing form for the original purpose of the materials or products that constitute the waste or diverted material, or for a similar purpose.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation Act 2008

Resource recovery facility means a facility –

a) that collects, sorts, stores, processes, extracts materials or energy (or any combination of these activities) from material for the purpose of recovering components for recycling or reuse; and

b) is not a disposal facility or transfer station; and

c) does not incinerate waste (with or without energy recovery); and

may include facilities focused on a single waste stream, eg, construction and demolition resource recovery facility, large-scale composting operations and materials recovery facility.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation (Calculation and Payment of Waste Disposal Levy) Amendment Regulations 2023

Removal of structural and non-structural building materials from residential, industrial, commercial and institutional buildings deconstruction projects for the purpose of reuse or recycling.

The act of keeping different types of waste materials separate from other wastes from the moment they become waste.

A facility that contains a designated receiving area where waste is received, and from which waste or any material derived from that waste is:

i) transferred to a final disposal site; or

ii) transferred elsewhere for further processing; and

that does not itself provide long-term storage for waste or material derived from that waste.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation (Information Requirements) Regulations 2021

An assessment method that incorporates financial, environmental and social factors rather than just economic factors to make a decision.

Any thing disposed of or discarded; and

a) includes a type of waste that is defined by its composition or source (for example, organic waste, electronic waste, or construction and demolition waste); and

to avoid doubt, includes any component or element of diverted material, if the component or element is disposed of or discarded.

Source/Citation: Waste Minimsation Act 2008

Means infrastructure and associated equipment that is used to support waste management and minimisation

Source/Citation: Waste Minimisation (Waste Disposal Levy) Amendment Act 2024