The Te Rapa factory of New Zealand company saveBOARD, which converts packaging waste into environmentally sustainable construction boards, was officially opened today by Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate and Hamilton West MP Dr Gaurav Sharma.

Mayor Southgate said she was delighted Hamilton had been chosen as the base for an innovative technology that addressed both an environmental issue by reducing waste to landfill and a building supply issue by turning that waste into a certified, safe and low carbon construction board.

Dr Sharma said by producing building materials in New Zealand the saveBOARD plant would improve supply chain resilience while providing local employment and helping to reduce carbon emissions.

saveBOARD Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Charteris said the factory started producing saleable product on 21 November 2021 and since 10 January it has been operating 24 hours a day, three days per week producing 400 boards a day and diverting up to 4,000 tonnes of waste from landfill annually. The company plans to ramp the factory up to six days per week as demand increases. The factory has created new jobs with more expected as the project grows.

Mr Charteris said New Zealand builders can now replace plywood, particle board and plaster board, with saveBOARD’s low carbon, environmentally sustainable construction boards made from packaging waste such as used beverage cartons, soft plastics and coffee cups.

saveBOARD has funding and support from industry leaders Freightways, Tetra Pak and Closed Loop Solutions which will provide recycled material as well as transport and logistics solutions.

Andrew Pooch, Managing Director of Tetra Pak Oceania said, “This local recycling solution is more than just an investment to us. It is the right thing to do.

“The saveBOARD facility delivers on the New Zealand Government’s objective to transform recycling by delivering a local circular economy solution. The facility has the capacity to process all the beverage cartons in New Zealand and increase if demand grows. It will require a steady supply of used beverage cartons through kerbside recycling to deliver a much-needed supply of sustainable building materials in the market.

“Cartons are one of the most environmentally friendly packaging options for food and beverage in New Zealand. With a local whole-of-carton recycling solution, we are excited to contribute to a robust circular economy in New Zealand.’’

Freightways Chief Executive Officer, Mark Troughear, is thrilled to see the plant up and running and says its investment in SaveBOARD was an important step in the NZX listed company's continuing mission to find circular waste solutions.

“One of Freightways’ core principles is to take ownership and solve problems through action, investing in SaveBOARD was an opportunity to do just that by supporting a smart and market-ready idea.

“Paul’s vision for the company provided an exciting proposition in that it offered both a reliable and clean method of disposal for hard to recycle waste – things we already collect and shred through our business units – and delivered a viable finished product that is much needed in the New Zealand building industry,” says Troughear.

Mr Charteris said there is a growing demand for the product because of the building materials shortage. “For example, we have taken used Tetra Pak packaging from Fonterra and recycled Suntory coffee cups along with Contact Energy’s redundant marketing material to produce a saveBOARD exposed interior lining on a feature wall at Contact’s Auckland offices.

“If people buy and use our products, we can scale up and have a bigger impact. The more people buy our product, the more we can produce. Every board sold means 10kg less of carbon emissions, and less packaging that ends up in landfill.”

The saveBOARD production process uses heat and compression to bond materials, eliminating the need for glues or other chemical additives. saveBOARD is made with zero water, zero glues, zero chemicals and has zero VOC emissions or formaldehydes. The product provides up to a 90% reduction in carbon emissions compared with other construction boards. saveBOARD has put in systems in place to recover offcuts and end of life boards to be remanufactured into new board products, providing a zero waste to landfill solution.

The technology to turn waste into high performance building material was developed in the United States where it has been widely used for more than a decade. The product was chosen by Tesla as the membrane roof substrate for its 200,000m² gigafactory in Nevada. The Tesla roof equates to upcycling 2,000 tonnes of composite plastics and saves 336,000 kgs of embodied CO₂ compared to using plywood.

Mr Charteris said saveBOARD had received a A$1.74 million grant from the Australian and New South Wales Governments towards setting up a A$5 million facility in New South Wales that is scheduled to be in production this year.