On November 1st, world leaders will convene in Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26. The summit will bring together government representatives, businesses and the general public in a pivotal (and precarious) year for the planet. To mitigate the effects of climate change the global temperature rise must be kept below 1.5C. To achieve this Scientists have stated that it would require the world’s carbon emissions to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by the end of this decade. Despite a brief dip during the Covid-19 lockdowns, emissions are still rising.
 
Commitments to sustainability have been topping the agenda for many companies with an influx of new goals being set like its continually New Year. However, failure to stick to these resolutions results in a significant loss for everyone.
 
To take the old proverb, ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’ if you look behind the policies, there can be more than meets the eye. Take The Coca Cola Company, for instance they use 3,500 plastic bottles every second and not surprisingly in 2020 they were named the World’s worst plastic polluter for the third year in a row.
 
In 2018 Coca Cola launched a sleek new campaign ‘world without waste’ where they planned to tackle their pollution problem and the backlash against them. They pledged to use 50% recycled content and help collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one they sell by 2030.
 
Pledges for increasing the levels of recycled content are nothing new to the company, they have previously failed to meet targets in 2005 and 2015. Their failure stems from the fact they cannot collect enough bottles. The demand for recycled plastic is rising, with companies rushing to make environmental pledges; 2020 saw recycled plastic double the price of virgin plastic.
 
Companies have played up recycled content to protect profits and continue on with the same linear model. Betting on single use and recycling, yet seemingly benefiting from the appearance of environmental commitment with recycling initiatives. A recent BBC Panorama investigation revealed from Coca Cola’s own figures since 2018, 156 billion of their plastic bottles have been burnt, littered or buried in landfill sites. It would be unfair of me to say attempts by big businesses to move towards the right direction are greenwash, but big promises without necessary and meaningful action are just hollow words for good PR.
 
One industry ripe for change is construction, a sector that is similarly wedded to single use materials and recycling. A Built Environment day has been scheduled as part of the COP26 summit. Unfortunately, it seems that the use of reclaimed materials gets little to no attention within their schedule.
 
The day organised by a coalition of business and government networks focused on sustainability in construction. They have pledged that the built environment should halve its emissions by 2030, whereby 100% of new buildings must be net-zero carbon in operation, and embodied carbon must be reduced by at least 40%. With such targets placed you have to question why the intuitive solution of reuse is seemingly being ignored? Despite its potential in reducing carbon emissions, the reclamation trade is largely overlooked by mainstream construction.
 
Driven by an ambition to change the current state of play the futuREuse FCRBE Interreg NWE project began in 2019. The aim is to increase the amount of reclaimed building materials in circulation by 50% by 2032. Yes, I know yet another target for the thirties, but the 50% goal is not such an unreasonable ambition when you consider currently only 1% of building materials are reused following their first application.
 
The project set out to unlock the barriers to reuse, working collaboratively across our native countries to develop viable and scalable practices. What the work reveals is that real change is possible now; it is not reliant on new technological advancements, it only requires changes in behaviour and utilising what we have.
 
The week after COP26, on the 16th and 17th of November, the final event of the futuREuse FCRBE project is taking place in Brussels and online. The agenda is full of talks and live Q&As exploring reuse in action and presenting the newly developed tools and resources to help navigate the road to more reuse.
 
Tune in to watch sessions such as ‘Shedding a light on the reclamation trade’, which will explore Salvo's futuREuse UK & Ireland 500 and Opalis directories and present the findings from the statistical survey of the salvage sector in Belgium, France, Ireland, Netherlands and UK.
 
There will be a presentation of the Reuse Toolbox designed to address specifiers' needs, and feedback from the field with a dissemination of what has been learnt through the pilot operations. As well as the unveiling of the new Truly Reclaimed label from Salvo. A scheme that will promote authentic reclaimed products, informing customers of the provenance and positive environmental impact of reusing truly reclaimed materials.
 
Registration is required for both the on site and online events.