Insulation works all around the house.

CEILING insulation is taking a lot of political heat this year. But while the federal government admits its rebate scheme was flawed, the insulation itself shouldn’t be left in the cold.

Caitlin McGee, from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, says good insulation is always a crucial part of construction. “It has many benefits: greenhouse gas reduction, better comfort and lower energy bills.”

And the ceiling isn’t the only spot for it. “The roof cavity is the most important place, but if you want to insulate well, you need to think about the walls and floors, and the building shell as a whole,” she says.

If you’re building your house, get the wall insulation right first time – it can be difficult and expensive to add later. According to Ms McGee, in existing homes, the best opportunity to retrofit is “when you’re renovating or pulling apart your walls for some other reason.” In all cases, it’s wise to consult a building sustainability assessor for detailed advice.

Because heat transfers in different ways, a combination of both reflective (foil) and bulk insulation (such as batts) works best. When you’re choosing a product, consider its green credentials, such as recycled content, as well as its performance, measured by the R-value.

In Melbourne, the building code requires that walls rate a minimum of R2.2. “Generally, the more extreme the climate, the more insulation you should have,” Ms McGee says. But she warns DIYers not to buy overly fat batts that must be squashed to fit. Bulk insulation works by trapping air; it’s less effective when compressed.

Another retrofitting alternative is to add the insulation outside. On her home, Ms McGee affixed polystyrene and cement panels to the external walls. “The material I used as my cladding is also part of my insulation strategy,” she says. “It’s worthwhile thinking about less conventional materials that have good insulating properties.”

Underfloor insulation is more straightforward, so long as there’s enough access space. Maurice Beinat, from home retrofitting business ecoMaster, says you need about 400 millimetres to work in.

Although floors cause less heat loss than ceilings and walls, insulating them can make a big difference to winter comfort. “The special thing about floors, particularly polished timber, is the contact your feet make with them,” he says. “Floors don’t need to be very cold to make you uncomfortable.”

He suggests that well-insulated floors should reach R2.5. (Uninsulated timber floors rate R0.7, and with good-quality carpet and underlay, they rate R1.)

Mr Beinat says there are two requirements for floor insulation: that it doesn’t hold moisture and won’t become a rat nest. For those reasons, he recommends polyester insulation (manufactured in a roll, rather than a batt, for convenience). Before stapling it in place, seal any gaps in the flooring.

In homes that have a lot of underfloor airflow, such as weatherboards, ecoMaster also fastens a layer of reflective insulation to the joists, making the sub-floor nearly air tight. They charge between $28 and $35 per metre, installed.

Mr Beinat says it’s a job well suited to DIYers, but with one serious warning: “The main danger is electrocution by stapling through wires. People do die underfloor.” He advises purchasing a double-insulated, electric stapler, rather than cheaper handheld models that won’t protect against electrocution.

On the first Sunday of every month, the members of Dig In Community Garden hold a working bee. “We make compost and we tidy the place up,” says Ann Rocheford. “Then we retire to the barbeque and open the red wine – it’s good community-building time.”

The Port Melbourne garden, in Murphy Reserve, has been running since 2003. There are 51 plots and well over a hundred people who regularly stop in. The members reflect the mix of the suburb, from old-timers to newly arrived apartment dwellers. “In the garden they all speak a common language: it’s about how their crops are going. That helps people get to know each other,” Ms Rocheford says.

The plots range in size from four to ten square metres. “It’s amazing how much you can grow on a small amount of land if you look after it properly,” she says. On her plot, she grows “more than enough” for her and her husband. She has finished her winter planting and although it’s a slower time of year, she still tends her patch at least once a week: watering, harvesting and tormenting white cabbage moths.

“You have to be there regularly. It’s a constant thing – community gardens have a ‘use it or lose it’ policy. In summer, you’ve got to be able to water your plants three times a week.”

But the returns on that commitment are many. As well as reinforcing your sense of community, regular trips to the garden are good for your health. “Bending your back and doing some work is very beneficial – if you really want a good workout, try making compost,” Ms Rocheford says. “Also, the vegetables are organic. You pick them, put them in the pot that night and eat them. It’s terribly healthy.”

Ben Neil is the president of the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network. He argues that these gardens are a crucial part of the bigger push towards sustainable living. “If we are to face the challenges of climate change, then urban agriculture and community gardens have got to be part of the solution.

“They tick so many boxes: they give you an opportunity to meet your neighbours, improve your mental and physical health, and grow and eat locally produced, organic, fresh fruit and vegetables.”

Melbourne’s oldest community garden, in Nunawading, has been running for over three decades. At last count, in 2006, there were 75 gardens across the city. They’re sprouting. “There’s tremendous demand for new gardens,” Mr Neil says. “A lot of councils now are developing policy to deal with the requests.”

The start-up process is never quick and easy – establishing a group, finding land and gaining council permission is more likely to take years than months. (The South Australian neighbourhood house association, CANH, has released a comprehensive how-to guide.)

One thorny objection is that starting a community garden means privatising open land. Mr Neil says groups can keep the wider public involved by running regular tours, workshops or growing fruit trees anyone can harvest.

“But the reality is that land is going to become harder to find,” he says. “The natural progression is the sharing of backyards. Many people have more space than they need and are happy for others to use it.”

 

 

Modular houses can be green, if you choose carefully.

For most buyers, prefabricated homes have three big pluses: a set product, a set price, and construction in double-quick time.

The factory-built process can also result in far less waste. Architect and environmental design consultant Chris Barnett, from Third Skin Sustainability, says that even if prefab companies aren’t eco-minded, they’re likely to use materials efficiently.

“Supply chains can be refined and controlled to reduce waste – there’s an alignment between waste saving and cost saving,” he says. “Also, the site impacts, noise and ecological disturbances will all be cut down if the on-site construction time is short.”

But it’s a mistake to assume that modular always means green. Most modular houses use steel framing, which has much higher embodied energy than timber. Another potential disadvantage of prefab is the lack of thermal mass, meaning the homes can’t store the heat from winter sun or the cool from summer nights. Quality modular buildings compensate by adding extra insulation so they require little energy to stay comfortable.

Homebuyers need to assess a modular dwelling’s design and performance just as they would conventional on-site builders and plans. “Look at the building fabric and the star rating, as well as the energy and other environmental impacts of delivery,” he says. “If it’s a green modular house, it should have a high star rating and low energy demand through smarter appliances and lighting.”

Mr Barnett is developing SmartSkin, an innovative manufactured housing system that uses timber wall panels that are both structural and insulating, and a factory-built technology pod. He expects to complete the first home by the end of the year.

“We’ve been building the same way for hundreds of years – we still get handed the same piles of sticks and nails,” he says. “Over the next 20 years we are going to see significant changes. The efficiency of manufactured and component-based construction will be crucial in creating greener housing that remains affordable.

“There aren’t many sustainable options on the market now, but products are starting to come from overseas and Australian manufacturers are beginning to gear up.”

One Australian manufacturer taking sustainability seriously is Eco Villages Worldwide, based in Bendigo. They sell Eco Pods – flat pack homes that are assembled on-site in three weeks. “When someone buys one, I make an order and it creates a list of every product needed,” says Bryce Tonkin. “It’s a manufacturing process for the building and that has massive ramifications for efficiency, and reducing waste, time and effort.”

Mr Tonkin says the market for prefab homes has grown over the last few years. “More and more, people want buildings quickly. Our path has been to design those homes for their eco-friendliness and energy efficiency.”

Eco Pods are rated at 7.5 stars, which means they need about two-thirds less energy than standard five-star homes. Among the carefully selected materials are compressed-straw wall panels made locally in Bendigo, recycled carpets and decking made of old milk bottles and sawdust. The three-bedroom design sells for $230,000.

“There are a lot of people who want to reduce their carbon footprint and ongoing energy costs, but it’s complicated if you’re starting from scratch,” Mr Tonkin says. “We’re trying to make it easy for people to get something they can move into now.”

Home buyers benefit from reading the eco-scorecard.

Household energy efficiency ratings (or star ratings) tell you how comfy the temperature of your home will be throughout the year.

“Most people wouldn’t know the star rating of their house,” says Matt Fisher, from the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors. “But the stars have a dollar value in terms of the price and running cost of the home – that will become better understood as a lot more houses advertise with their star rating.”

So how are the ratings figured out?

Energy assessors plug the details of your plans (or existing building) into a nationally accredited software program, such as FirstRate5 or AccuRate. The program analyses the home’s layout and orientation, and the construction of the roof, floor, walls and windows.

This information is matched with the local climate to calculate how much heating and cooling you’ll need. “It’s a very sophisticated model,” Mr Fisher says. “Using climate data collected over many years, it calculates [the home’s temperature] for every hour of every day of the year. It works out the amount of heat or cooling energy necessary to keep the house comfortable.”

Homes can score between zero and 10 stars. At zero stars, the building does next to nothing to protect against temperature outside; at 10, it will be comfortable all year round without artificial heating or cooling. A five-star home is good, but far from outstanding.

Last year, state and federal governments agreed to lift the residential standard from five to six stars. The states must bring the rules into effect by May 2011, at the latest.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but we need to go further,” says Liz Minchin, Age journalist and author of new eco-book Screw Light Bulbs. She argues the regulations should have been more ambitious, by adding a timetable for even higher standards and factoring house sizes into the ratings.

“The five-star regulations helped slow down the increase in emissions from Victorian homes, but those emissions are still growing – largely because houses are getting so much bigger,” she says.

“Bigger homes typically take more energy to keep cool or warm – and that costs everyone money in rising energy bills, because we need to build more expensive power generation to cope with spikes in electricity use.”

The good news is that the governments have agreed to another change that should push household energy efficiency higher. Homeowners and landlords will soon be required to declare the energy, water and greenhouse performance of a house when they put it up for sale or lease.

It means that buyers and renters will be able to compare the environmental impacts and ongoing costs of different homes. Even though the full details and start date aren’t set (it will be phased in from May next year) the plan is relevant immediately – especially for people considering renovations.

Ms Minchin says a similar mandatory disclosure scheme in the ACT has shown that energy-efficient homes attract higher prices. A study for the federal government found that in 2005, lifting the energy rating of a median-priced house in the ACT by just half a star added about $4,500 to its value.

“Buyers are becoming more conscious of climate change and energy prices,” Ms Minchin says. “Real estate agents say people are asking about energy ratings more and more.”

Compost toilets save water, energy and nutrients.

We flush nearly one quarter of our household water down the toilet. “At the moment there’s this silly situation where we use high-grade water to flush our toilets,” says planning expert Professor Patrick Troy from the Australian National University. “To cut down our consumption of potable water, we need to change the way we manage human body wastes.”

Professor Troy, editor of Troubled Waters: Confronting the Water Crisis in Australia’s Cities, says composting toilets work with little or no water, and are suitable for suburban and even multi-storey housing. “They can be fitted into standard bathrooms so they look just the same, except they don’t have cisterns and flushes.”

The many different designs – both commercial and owner-built – fit into two broad categories: continuous or batch composting. Continuous systems, such as the Clivus Multrum, use one container. The material decomposes slowly and emerges as finished compost that can be safely dug into your garden. Batch systems, such as Rota-Loo, use two or more containers. Once one is full, it is replaced, sealed and set aside to compost. Commercial systems cost from $800 to $8000, depending on the model and size.

The Environmental Protection Authority accredits commercial composting toilets before they can go on sale. The authority’s code of practice for onsite waste management permits them to be used in both sewered and unsewered areas.

Hamish Skermer runs Natural Event, a business that provides composting toilets for festivals and events around the world. “People can have confidence that these systems meet rigorous standards,” he says. “Composting toilet technology can work anywhere on any scale. If we can do it for 18,000 people at the Falls Festivals, then a family of five can do it in their home.”

Even so, householders often find it difficult to get council approval, usually based on perceptions rather than substantive health issues. But those attitudes are changing: Natural Event has already provided toilets for community events run by a number of Melbourne councils.

Unlike conventional toilets, compost toilets require some maintenance – at the least, to distribute the finished soil conditioner. “They all have to be managed, because it’s not a flush system where it’s taken away and it’s someone else’s problem,” Mr Skermer says. The toilet should not smell. If it does, it’s a sign that something isn’t right. But he says that householders can easily fix any issues by attending to the drainage or ventilation, or adding cover material such as sawdust.

He argues that pee and poo shouldn’t be even referred to as waste. It’s the line of thought most recently popularised in The Humanure Handbook, by American writer, Joseph Jenkins. “We have to understand that shit ain’t shit,” Mr Skermer says. “Waste does not exist in nature. The mere concept of a toilet being ‘waste management’ is a backwards thought.”

Compost toilets not only dramatically reduce water consumption, but also cut the energy required to pump sewerage (currently powered by heavy-polluting brown coal) and return valuable nutrients to the soil. “Our food contains nutrients in the form of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and all the trace elements,” Mr Skermer says. “We eat and then pee and crap into the sewer system and a large amount of these nutrients are pumped into the ocean. We’re removing ourselves from the cycle.”

There are still big incentives to retrofit, but be sure to get in quick.

The federal government has once again changed its eco-rebates and programs. Here’s an update on the major schemes.

The ceiling insulation rebate has been scrapped temporarily. It’s scheduled to begin again on June 1. The new minister responsible, Greg Combet, is letting the batts settle before announcing the full details, but the subsidy will be $1000 (down from $1200). Householders will be required to pay upfront and claim the cash later through the Medicare system.

The federal rebate for replacing your old electric hot water service has also been reduced. Householders are now eligible for $1000 for solar hot water systems and $600 for heat pump systems (down from $1600 and $1000, respectively). You can apply for either the insulation or the hot water system rebate, but not both.

The state government offers rebates for solar hot water systems too – up to $1500 in metropolitan Melbourne, and $1600 in regional Victoria – but only if you’re ineligible for the federal incentive. Extra discounts are also available courtesy of the schemes for renewable energy certificates and Victorian energy efficiency certificates.

The federal government has amended the Green Loans program. Previously, householders could receive a free home sustainability assessment and a four-year interest free loan of up to $10,000. The loan component has been axed altogether, but the assessment scheme has been expanded to allow for an extra 600,000 homes. It’s still free and open to renters and landlords, as well as homeowners.

Home sustainability consultant Keith Loveridge, from Eco Assessment, says that despite its administrative hiccups, the program gives householders a great opportunity. “Energy and water bills are expected to increase sharply in the coming years. You can offset those rises right now by identifying areas where you can make savings.”

To get the best advice, he recommends booking assessors who aren’t affiliated with solar panel or water tank retailers. “Try to stay with the independent assessors who don’t try to sell you anything,” he says. “And make sure your home sustainability assessor is accredited. We all carry identification with us.”

If you want solar photovoltaic panels, the federal Solar Credits scheme remains in place. Presently, the rebate fluctuates according to the market value of renewable energy certificates. However, from January 1 next year the price of the certificates will be fixed at $40. According to Nick Brass, from renewable energy retailer Energy Matters, that will translate to a rebate of $5400 for Victorians who install a grid-connected 1.5-kilowatt system.

Owners of photovoltaic panels may also benefit from the state government’s net feed-in tariff, which started last November. It means you can receive cash or a credit on your bill (depending on your electricity retailer) for any excess power you generate. “With a 1.5-kilowatt system, if you feed half the energy generated during the day into the grid you’ll earn about $800 a year. That will allow you to pay off your system in under eight years,” Mr Brass says.

And finally, water. Both the state and federal governments still offer rebates for tanks and greywater systems – all up, you can get $1500 for a tank or $1000 for a greywater system.

All this is just the start of the snail trail. To track the full details, see the Sustainability Victoria and Living Greener websites.

Cohousing combines common sense with green design.

In Melbourne’s north, construction has begun on an urban infill development with a big twist. Ecohousing Heidelberg includes not only 18 eco-designed homes, ranging from one to four bedrooms, but also an extra building with facilities for everyone to share.

Known as cohousing, it’s a type of a residential development where your home is one of about 15 to 30 clustered around a common house and open space. “It’s like returning to the positive aspects of a village or extended family neighbourhood,” says Iain Walker, from Cohousing Australia. “It can be done in urban high-rise, as well as suburban or rural locations.”

The individual dwellings are private and self-contained, not communal, but the residents pool some resources. The common house might include a shared guest room, kitchen, laundry and shed. Outside, there can be shared garden space or play areas.

“It considerably reduces your eco-footprint and the area of land you need, but you can still have quality design and amenity,” Mr Walker says. “And because you’re sharing more community spaces, you often build more affordably.”

The concept originated in Denmark in the 1970s and has become popular in Europe and North America. Mr Walker says that because of the environmental and resource limits facing our cities, it’s crucial we think about different kinds of housing.

There are also important social benefits. “It’s great for young families. You can know your neighbours and support each other with childcare. It’s also great for people to age-in-place for longer. Most cohousing neighbours eat together two or more times per week. Right now the fastest growing household size is single-person, and that isolation and alienation is bad for our health and wellbeing,” he says.

Ecohousing Heidelberg isn’t open to private buyers – it was established by Common Equity Housing Limited, a community housing association. It will offer rental housing for members of a cooperative (applicants must fall under certain income and asset levels).

Andrew Partos is a member of another Melbourne cohousing organisation, Urban Coup. The group, comprised of 30 individuals and families, is looking for land in the city’s inner-north. “We’ve got a diverse mix of people with a breadth of skills and experiences, and a range of ages from newborns to retirees,” he says.

The group has spent over a year gathering members and sorting through issues such as design, legal and financial models, incorporation, articles of association, decision-making and conflict resolution.

The Urban Coup has now reached the toughest stage: buying the property. Spiralling prices and financing delays have stymied other cohousing collectives at this point. But according to Mr Partos, his group has received strong encouragement from within councils and the housing profession. He’s optimistic that Urban Coup can blaze the way for other groups now springing up in the northern and eastern suburbs. “We’re a bit of a prototype,” he says.

Mr Partos works at the state property developer, VicUrban, and travelled to Europe and North America in 2007 to study cohousing projects. He says they typically have eco-footprints about 40 per cent lower than traditional developments.

“You can do things on a larger scale, such as combined blackwater and greywater treatment plants and shared hot water services. And there’s a whole flow on for sustainability, with the opportunity to share vehicles and use bicycles or other types of alternative transport.”

Permaculture helps cut your footprint and grow your food.

When Kat Lavers moved into her Northcote home, she named the property after its big old plum tree. Ever since, she and her housemates have set about transforming the rest of the block into an urban permaculture demonstration site, aiming to show how much of our needs can be met on a small scale.

“The Plummery is less than one tenth of an acre – about 400 square metres – and that’s including the house,” she says. “Once our design is fully in place, we’ll be providing all our salad, eggs, honey, water and electricity, plus a really good supply of our fruit and veggies, and lots of mushrooms. We’ll also process all our organic wastes on site, using technologies like a home-built composting toilet and lots of compost, chooks and worms.”

Ms Lavers didn’t chance upon a suburban oasis. Instead, such abundance comes from careful planning and design based on the principles of permaculture. The word is a contraction of permanent culture or permanent agriculture. “It’s about creating human environments that provide for our needs without requiring massive inputs of resources or producing a lot of waste,” she says. “It’s common sense, but it’s uncommonly applied: designs and behaviours that can exist generation after generation.”

For example, in her house, a greenhouse outside the back door will serve many uses: a space for seed propagation, mushroom growing and hot climate plants, as well as a sunroom for drying laundry and warming the home in winter.

“For me, permaculture is real sustainability – it’s not just changing a light bulb or using a reusable bag,” Ms Lavers says. “I only started learning about it in 2006. I’ve made a big transition in a short time so I feel like it’s possible for many people to do the same.”

Rick Coleman runs Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in Leongatha. He says there’s nothing complex or mysterious about permaculture. “In a nutshell, it’s sustainable design. It’s like playing chess with life, moving the pieces around so they operate best in your system.” That can mean anything from the smart placement of your garden beds to taking advantage of the way soil stores water.

“Every property has some sort of a slope. If you understand where the water flows, you can slow it down, block it or divert it into certain trees so it all stays on the property,” Mr Coleman says.

Good designs link the needs and functions of different parts of the system. “Chickens are the best example,” he says. “They can do all your composting, clean up food scraps, and provide fertiliser and eggs. If you have two garden beds, the chickens can scratch out all the weeds in one, fertilise the area and eat all the bugs. Then it’s ready for planting and you move them into the other one.”

For now, most suburban blocks produce little and consume a lot. Permaculture not only seeks to reverse that, but also establish stronger local networks – it’s the basis for community building movements such as Transition Towns and Permablitz. “You’re going to produce lots of healthy, home-grown food, consume less power and save your dollars. And you’ll also start integrating into the community,” Mr Coleman says.

“You can start simply. Hand a bag of beans to your next door neighbour, and it’s on.”

To find out about permaculture groups in Melbourne, see permaculturemelbourne.org.au, or to learn more about what it’s all about, see permacultureprinciples.com.

Well-placed, high-density materials can keep your home comfortable.

By and large, when house designers mention “thermal mass“, their clients’ minds go blank. The topic seems as impenetrable as a thick bluestone wall.

Sustainable building expert Dr Chris Reardon, of Suntech Design, says it’s a crucial concept for people to grasp – and it’s actually not so complex. “Thermal mass is the battery of passive heating and cooling,” he explains. “It’s where you store free heat from the sun, or free cooling from breezes or radiation to clear night skies.”

Dense building materials, such as concrete, brick, earth or tiles, have high thermal mass – they need a lot of heat energy to warm them up and they retain the heat for a long time. “The main value of thermal mass is to even out day/night temperature ranges. In winter, it stores daytime solar heat and augments night temperatures. In summer, stored night ‘coolth’ can absorb daytime heat gains,” Dr Reardon says. In contrast, lightweight materials heat and cool rapidly.

High-density materials are helpful in climates where there’s a gap of more than six degrees between daytime maximums and night-time minimums. In Melbourne, the temperature often varies by 10 degrees or more. “The more extreme the climate, the more thermal mass you need,” he says.

But mass is just one element of good solar passive design. If not co-ordinated with the orientation, windows, shading and insulation, the heavy materials can accentuate the worst aspects of the climate – the home could absorb extra warmth in summer and stay colder in winter.

“Thermal mass must be exposed on the inside of the house and insulated from the outside,” Dr Reardon explains. For example, the timber and plasterboard internal wall in a brick veneer home insulates the mass in the bricks, meaning they don’t help to curb temperature extremes. The mass is better put to use in reverse brick veneer construction, or by designing internal feature walls of exposed brick, cement-rendered brick or earth.

According to Riccardo Zen, from Zen Architects in North Fitzroy, carefully placed high-density materials are essential to cut energy needs for homes in Victoria. “Our basic goal is to eliminate heating and cooling in our buildings,” he says. “It’s very hard to do that unless you have some form of mass.”

A classic example of thermal mass is an exposed concrete slab floor, positioned in front of windows in a north-facing living room. In the winter, the sun can shine directly on the slab, which absorbs the radiation and warms the house into the night.  With appropriate shading, sunlight won’t hit the concrete in summer and the chill of the slab will help the home stay cool.

You don’t have to start from scratch to improve the thermal mass in your home. Mr Zen says building designers are learning nifty ways to add high-density materials to existing houses, including suspended slabs, aerated concrete blocks and tiles. “We did a project where we brought concrete pavers onto a timber floor using the existing joists,” he says.

“People are also experimenting with using water tanks. Water is one of the best forms of thermal mass – you can also shift it and put it back seasonally when it’s required,” Mr Zen says. “We’re becoming more sophisticated in the way we use mass. There are some hybrid systems evolving to tackle difficult sites.”

Plan carefully so you don’t waste building materials.

Construction waste comprises up to 40 per cent of landfill in Australia, according to the building design guide, Your Home. Mark Sanders, managing director of Third Ecology, an architecture and building firm in Geelong, says that with a combination of thoughtful design, planning and site management, most waste can be avoided or salvaged. “The waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse and recycle applies to a building site, just like anything else,” he says.

There are a number of steps you can take before you begin to build or renovate. Talk to your designer first – smaller homes use less of everything, so the best way to cut the amount of materials needed for your home is to limit its size. Similarly, if you’re renovating, the thriftiest tactic is to keep as much of the existing building as you can.

The dimensions of the design will also affect rubbish on site. “Materials come in certain widths and lengths,” Mr Sanders says. “We can design with the standard sizes in mind to get the maximum use out of materials and minimise the waste.”

Using prefabricated products, such as frames and roofing, will also save landfill. “If some of the work can be done in a controlled, factory-type environment, then there should be not only less waste, but also better ways of dealing with the waste that does occur,” Mr Sanders says.

The next level in the hierarchy is reuse. Many building products are available pre-loved. Intact items such as doors are ideal for refitting. Material-wise almost everything can be reclaimed, from plasterboard, timber and glass, to metals like steel, aluminium and copper. Even concrete, plastics, bricks are good to go around again and are widely recycled by waste contractors.

But Mr Sanders offers a word of caution to over-eager scavengers. “The recycled products need to be fit for purpose. It’s not just a matter of using any old thing,” he says. “Make sure you’re aware of any issues that may mean the product is not as good as the alternative new one.”

If you’re willing to spend time, you’ll save money. It can be well worth your while fossicking for items with character. “You can come across some really beautiful timber,” Mr Sanders says. “Second hand resources are cheap to purchase, but they can need more labour to bring them up to scratch.”

To best recycle the waste produced on site, you have to get your builder onside, according to Enzo Bruscella, executive officer of the Barwon Regional Waste Management Group. “Speak to them about how they’re going to manage the site and the materials that come off it.”

To guarantee a good job, ask for a waste management plan, including targets for resource recovery and landfill waste reduction. It shouldn’t make your project more expensive, because any extra costs can be offset by lower disposal fees and the sale of salvaged resources. “These materials have value. We really don’t want them going to landfill,” Mr Bruscella says.

On the whole, the building industry has been slow to clean up its leftovers, so it’s important for householders to demand better standards. If you (or your builder) want more information, contact Keep Australian Beautiful Victoria, or your regional waste management group.