Your Home and BuildBin
The guidance exists. BuildBin puts it on site.
Your Home is the Australian Government's guide to building comfortable, sustainable homes. Its waste minimisation chapter tells builders what good construction waste practice looks like. Here is each piece of that advice, and how the BuildBin system covers it.
What Your Home says.
Figures are the ones Your Home cites. They're historical, national figures, not a 2026 measurement.
44%
Construction and demolition produces about 44% of Australia's total waste, according to the 2020 figure Your Home cites.
77%
About 77% of that construction and demolition waste is recovered and 76% recycled, based on 2018–19 data. Most of the recovered tonnage is heavy material like concrete and brick. The light, bulky streams a new home produces are the ones that get lost in a mixed skip.
| Material | % of weight | BuildBin bay |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete-based products | 22.9 | 06 |
| Fines (under 4.75 mm) | 21.6 | 07 |
| Timber | 20.0 | 02 |
| Clay products (bricks, tiles) | 8.8 | 06 |
| Natural aggregates | 5.6 | 06 |
| Ferrous metals | 5.1 | 08 |
| Plasterboard | 3.7 | 03 |
| Paper and cardboard | 3.2 | 04 |
| Plastic | 2.9 | 01, 05 |
| Non-ferrous metals | 0.6 | 08 |
| Other | 5.6 | 07 |
This table covers building waste generally, including demolition. BuildBin's own split for a new home build is on the method page.
Advice, and how BuildBin delivers it.
Every line on the left is quoted from Your Home's waste minimisation chapter.
Many local governments require waste management plans before granting development consent.
BuildBin gives you the numbers for the plan. Estimated volumes by stream before the build, and weighed tonnes by stream after it.
Plan for waste separation and sorting on site during construction.
The station is the plan. It arrives at slab with eight separated bays and stays until handover.
Separate waste for recycling wherever possible.
Seven of the eight bays are recycling streams. Only general rubbish is destined for disposal, after a final sort.
Provide recycling skips and colour code or label waste skips and protect them from contamination, rain and wind.
Numbered, labelled bays under a weatherproof lid. Plasterboard and cardboard stay dry, and nothing blows away.
Use waste-aware subcontractors and require trades to dispose of their own waste.
Each trade drops its own waste into the right bay, right where they work, before they leave site.
Use written contracts with all trades that include clauses requiring waste minimisation.
The BuildBin Standard is a model subcontract clause, with stage checks and sign-off.
Include waste minimisation and recycling performance clauses in the contract.
Performance is measured, not assumed. Every change-over is weighed by stream at the facility.
Agree which party or parties receive financial benefits of recycling.
Set out in the pilot agreement, including how recovered material value is treated.
Negotiate recycling paybacks with local resource recovery firms.
Recycle Group collects and processes the streams, so there's one party to deal with, not eight.
Quotes from Your Home: Waste minimisation, Australian Government. Your Home is an information guide, not a grant, rating or accreditation. BuildBin is an independent Recycle Group initiative and is not endorsed by or affiliated with the Australian Government. The Australian Government logo is not used on this site.