| Hibiscusmatters August 19, 201514

Sustainable living

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Homes built of earth bring to mind quirky funky constructions made of mud bricks and recycled materials, maybe with an earth roof.However, there is more than one way to build with earth, as can be seen from the latest home being built by Terra Firma Earth Building Company in Wainui.Rammed earth creates a more conventional and sleek finish and is also less labour intensive, which Terra Firma director Paul Geraets says puts the cost more on a par with that of a standard building at around $2500 per square metre.Stabilised rammed earth – this company uses a mix of suitable soil and up to 10 percent cement – is a high performance, cost effective material that can be used in many different ways in building, including for load bearing walls.However, it is the low carbon footprint, energy efficiency, durability and sustainability of earth as a material that has given Paul his passion for building earth homes. To date, the self-taught designer and builder has built at least 80 such houses in New Zealand, mainly in the Waikato – something he has been doing for 25 years.He says earth buildings are also healthy for the occupants, because of the use of materials with low toxicity and the breathability of the earth walls. The

Paul Geraets says that the patent for a pneumatic rammer like this, used to ram the earth into a solid mass for a wall, is more than 100 years old.

Earth an option for new sustainable homes

walls are a minimum of 350mm thick. Warmed by the sun, they also release heat providing an even temperature, day and night.It is this aspect that Paul says appeals to the family that owns the Wainui home that he is currently building. Around 150 cubic metres of soil, trucked from Mangawhai have gone into the walls of this home, which took a month to ram.Paul says his aim is to provide a building option that is ethical.“I want to help create a more sustainable construction culture,” Paul says. “It’s something that is becoming more and more important as new housing areas spring up.”

Packaging tops litter listPackaging, particularly for food and drink, makes up the bulk of NZ’s litter. The first litter survey in more than a decade, carried out by Waste Not Consulting three months ago, shows that more than 70 percent of NZ’s rubbish comes from packaging. Food packaging made up 37 percent of waste, while drink containers and bottles made up 34 percent. The Public Place Recycling Scheme has set a goal to reduce packaged litter by 10 percent by 2020 and will use the survey as a reference. The survey involved the counting and classifying of litter in eight urban areas, including Auckland. Examining an area of more than 580,000sqm, the survey found more than 18,000 items of litter – on average, there were 32 items of rubbish per 1000sqm. Industrial areas and arterial roads had the highest amount of litter while car parks and waterside walkways contained the fewest.

Hibiscusmatters August 19, 2015 | 15

Sustainable living

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Next time you have hair colour applied at the salon, spare a thought for what happens to all those pieces of aluminium foil.Commonly, it is put in the rubbish but some local hair salons are playing their part by not only recycling it, but also sourcing foil that is more environmentally friendly.Aluminium can be recycled over and over again, simply by re-melting it – a process that saves money and involves less energy than making new aluminium.Cans are the product that most people know can be recycled but aluminium foil is a resource that is increasingly being captured before it is lost to landfill, where it takes centuries to degrade.Hair Designers owner Maria Blunden says her salon gets through a lot of foil – around 5000 to 6000 sheets every month. She says she and her team were pleased to discover that it could be put out with the recycling, and that there is a product that is itself 95 percent recycled.Recently Hair Designers began using the Australian Refoil brand, which has been available in NZ for a year, imported by Professional Hair Brands. Two other Coast hair salons use the product, and more than 200 have

Recycling the foils used in hair salons is catching on. Photo taken at Hair Designers.

Foil recycling improving green credentials

taken it up nationwide.Part of the education campaign conducted by Refoil in Australia was to show how the product could be recycled successfully in normal Council systems.The most important thing is for hairdressers to crush those little foils into decent sized balls before placing them in the recycling bin – Auckland Council waste solutions manager Ian Stupple says that this enables them to be picked up by the sorting equipment. Homeowners can also recycle their used aluminium foil in this way.“Auckland Council accepts clean aluminium foil for recycling, washed of food waste and chemicals,” he says. Businesses and commercial premises should check with their service provider about what is acceptable to recycle.”

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