By Elaine Burridge

Plastics waste generated by the UK’s building and construction industry has risen by an average of 210% every two years between 2004 and 2018, according to an analysis of European Commission data.

Conducted by the Copper Sustainability Partnership (Cusp; www.cuspuk.com), the analysis shows that this waste has risen 15 times faster than in other European countries, where the average increase was 14% every two years. 

Oliver Lawton, co-founder of Cusp and managing director of copper tube manufacturer Lawton Tubes (Coventry, UK; www.lawtontubes.co.uk), commented, “At the end of a building’s life cycle, most plastics waste still isn’t recycled and is instead sent to a landfill, exported abroad or incinerated. Low recycling rates also necessitate new plastic products, leading to a linear cycle of production, use, and waste.”

However, the overall percentage for the 14 years to 2018 mask a huge rise in plastics waste in 2006, for which no explanation is given. The commission’s data shows that the construction sector’s plastics refuse soared by more than 1,500% from 63,457 t in 2004 to just over 1 mn t in 2006. 

The volumes then plummeted for the next four years, according to the data for 2008 and 2010 – again the reason for this is unknown. 

Related: Europe’s recycling of PVC waste falls in 2023

However, a research project by Northumbria University and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals may be a first step towards making the UK construction industry greener. 

A team from both universities will undertake a year-long research project to develop and use artificial intelligence models to identify and quantify waste from a range of building materials, including plastics, that may end up in landfill sites, but could be recycled.  

Visual sensor systems will be installed to monitor skips at construction sites to accurately derive how much waste is actually being produced. 

According to Northumbria University, the UK construction industry uses up to 40% of the country’s raw resources every year, 20% of which ends up in landfills.