“Any waste or offcut from our products now has an avenue for repurposing,” says Autex New Zealand’s General Sales Manager, Marcel Herbke. “We have an established recycling pathway and products that successfully pull through it. From here, it’s all about making the supply chain piece easy and cost-effective so the industry can embrace reuse.”
The Autex team is on a long-term journey to make their acoustic and insulation solutions more sustainable; it’s a complex challenge with a number of potential solutions, Marcel says. “The biggest development for us in the last 18 months is our take-back programme which accepts offcuts and construction site waste and is a big extension of our zero-waste manufacturing that has already been in place for years. We’re now able to reconstitute offcuts and end-of-life materials to create new insulation products.”
One such product is ReForm™, an acoustic panel crafted from reclaimed textile material. “ReForm™ is made from raw site waste and then laminated to create high-end acoustic panels, diverting PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate plastic) that would otherwise have ended up in landfill. We liken these repurposed products to organic fruit and veg, in that there’s some natural variance in their appearance. We are excited to see the market embrace those aesthetic imperfections with a product that is comparable in performance to one made with virgin materials, but which is ethically and environmentally superior.”
Autex is also leading the New Zealand industry with a programme called RePET that has diversified the potential outputs of its repurposed waste. “It used to be that our rigid board trimmings had to be downcycled into things like fence posts or lower-grade insulation. With RePET, we now use a pelletiser that converts waste into PET pellets that can be injection-moulded into new components. So instead of downcycling, you’re taking that repurposed material right back up to the top of the chain with a new, injection-moulded life.”
RePET has enabled Autex to make a range of new components including clips and desk clamps. “In combination with our glue-free SpinFix melting method, we’re able to make injection-moulded PET clips that affix to the back of an acoustic panel, making the end-of-life recycling for those products much easier. We also use RePET pellets to make desk clamps for computer monitors and some of the components of our office ceiling systems. Everywhere we can, we’re using our offcuts for injection-moulded components. RePET is helping us to create really circular pathways.”
The reconstituted PET pellets are also being used by partners such as QPOD, Marcel says. Autex is helping QPOD to produce 100% recycled and recyclable PET foundation materials with no landfill waste. “We provide them with PET pellets that they make into square pods to be made into slab insulation. This enables us to lock up that recycled PET in a concrete slab. We’re always looking for new ways to channel waste and lock it up.”
The sustainability journey is long and ongoing, Marcel says, with constant improvements being made. “We’ve long been aware that ‘recyclable’ doesn’t always mean ‘recycled’. The biggest challenge for us right now is collaborating with the market to get waste back from site, rather than letting it go to landfill. We have the facility to accept site waste for free here in Onehunga, and we do sometimes arrange for shipment of site waste back to us from bigger projects elsewhere in the country, but we know that separating waste on site isn’t yet common practice and not everyone has the capacity or resource to return it to us. There are a lot of opportunities to improve those systems over the coming months and years, and to provide additional recycling channels.”
Autex’s work continues with gradual improvements and new products and pathways, Marcel says. “In our regular product range, we’re moving from a minimum of 60% recycled content up to 80%. We hope to continue meeting the market in terms of aesthetics while ensuring that all of our future product offerings remain environmentally unimpeachable. It’s all about finding the balance without compromising; our most sustainable products still have to perform and hit the price points. The long-term vision is true product cingularity with easy pathways to achieve it. We don’t have all the answers yet, but the goal is clear: nothing ends up in landfill. That’s what we want.”
To learn more about Autex’s sustainable acoustic solutions, visit https://www.autexacoustics.co.nz/ and to explore the potential of their Greenstuf recycled insulation visit https://greenstuf.co.nz/.
