PerthNorg

Magpies swoop environment award

Hot in the heels of winning a HIA Greensmart award earlier this year, Midland Brick has now taken out two Sustainable Cities Awards in the categories of Waste Management and Sustainable Community Partnerships.

The Keep Australia Beautiful Sustainable Cities Awards recognise community organisations, schools, businesses and local government agencies who are active in their communities and making valuable contributions towards environmental sustainability. 

Midland Brick was recognised for its innovative recycling initiatives, in particular its Midland Magpies team which collects and reuses surplus clay bricks, pavers and tiles from building sites across Perth. Just recently, the program has been extended to provide a kerbside recycling service.

Over the past two years, Midland Brick has recycled a staggering 20,500 tonnes of clay, which is equal to 7.3 million bricks – enough to build 360 average double brick homes.

Alf D'Angelo, Business Development Manager, said winning these awards was a great achievement and reflected Midland Brick’s dedication to sustainability and protecting the environment. 

“Of course, we couldn’t achieve these goals without strong industry support,” Mr D’Angelo said. 

“We’ve worked closely with number of different building organisations, including Ross North, In-Vogue, Metrostyle, Plunkett Homes, APG Homes, Pindan Homes, Webb and Brown-Neaves, Jade Projects, Rural Building Company, Highbury Homes, Daly and Shaw, Novus, Perceptions, Capital Demolition and Brajkovich Demolition to facilitate the program. 

“The award highlights a shift in industry trends toward environmentally conscious development.” 

Midland Brick has been recycling its imperfect and waste products from our Middle Swan clay brick site and Cannington and Jandakot masonry sites into its clay mix for some time. Last year Midland Brick established the Midland Magpies to take this to the next level. 

“It has proven so popular that recently we extended the service to residents. In what is a WA first, the kerbside program collects waste clay bricks, pavers and roof tiles on request, allowing 10 days notice, with the minimum pick up being 750kg – the equivalent of one trailer load,” Mr D’Angelo said.  

“The most important point to note is that the returned material must be ‘clean’ – that is the brick and paver waste cannot have any other materials mixed in with it, especially timber, metal, paper or excessive mortar,” he said.

Divisional General Manager Peter Hogan said the program was a win-win for not only consumers and the industry, but also the environment. 

“Sustainability is a real focus for us, we are delighted to provide the industry with a service to take clean building waste off site that otherwise would have gone to landfill, costing expense to industry, home builders and consumers,” Mr Hogan said.

* John Cooke provides PR services for Midland Brick