“The building sector is responsible for more than 60% of resource use in Europe with more than 30 – 50% of material use taking place in the housing construction sector. The sector also generates about one third of all waste in the EU. It is because of these staggering statistics that increasing resource efficiency in the housing sector is of great importance for a sustainable society.”
Accord Housing Association has pledged to build a “virtually plastic-free” social housing development as part of its commitment to CHARM (Circular Housing Asset Renovation & Management), an EU Funded collective of four countries (UK, Netherlands, France and Belgium) that aim to research and share information in the interest of optimising (re)use of materials and natural resources and to avoid down cycling.
Accord Housing are claiming that their project is the first of its kind in the UK. Their assistant director of new businesses, said: “We particularly want to remove the plastic from the kitchens and the bathrooms, because even though a house can last for a hundred years or more, the average kitchen and bathroom is changed every few years and we are keen to avoid generating plastic waste. This trans-European project will enable us to work with our European partners to identify plastic-free building products. We haven’t yet got a plastic-free solution to the electrics, for instance, but we will be challenging people in the building products manufacturing industry to help us find solutions.”.