Recycled cartons end up as wall in Matamata home

Example of walls made of recycled food & beverage cartons. Photo: saveBOARD

Matamata couple Toni and Martin Van Damm found out through Sustainable Matamata about saveBOARD’s wallboard product made from recycled materials. They decided to use it in their home renovations and are pleased they did.

The product is created at saveBOARD’s Hamilton factory, where large volumes of finely minced cartons are pressed at high heat to form sheets of board.

A Sustainable Matamata recycling scheme ensures hundreds of the food and beverage cartons are collected and cleaned to help supply saveBOARD.

Matamata resident Toni van Damm in her

laundry area where saveBOARD board has

been used

The Van Damms note the board is more costly than standard gib but say the advantage is, it doesn’t require sanding, plastering or painting.

They were happy to use the board in their laundry and toilet areas as it is durable in damp environments. “We had actually done the bathroom otherwise we would have used it there,” says Toni. “But we’re looking at using it in other rooms.”

Toni and Martin were introduced to saveBOARD at last year’s Sustainability Sunday Fun Day at the Firth Tower and Museum site, where saveBOARD sales manager Paul Rose talked about the product and had samples on display.

The subsequent Sustainability Fun Day in March this year featured demonstrations on how to cut, flatten and clean the cartons that go into the saveBOARD boards. (Other ingredients include clean, used soft plastics.)

Unless these cartons are flattened and cleaned, they cannot be recycled and must be binned for landfill. That’s why Sustainable Matamata runs its scheme collecting and cleaning cafes’ used cartons and has partnered with the Merchant of Matamata to provide a bin for the public to drop off their own cleaned cartons.

To learn more about saveBOARD – watch this short video.