Celebrating Plastic Free July – one year later

Where it all started  

As official Sustainability and Education partners of the Ocean Sheroes, we were inspired by their record-breaking completion of one of the toughest races on earth while raising awareness of plastic pollution in our seas to begin our own plastic revolution in the construction industry.

With the construction industry accounting for around 20% of global demand for plastics, we realised we had a key role to play in moving towards a more circular economy for plastics and inspiring our supply chain and the wider industry to do the same. 

A Plastic Revolution

We started our campaign by investigating the journey plastic takes to and from one of our Woodgate development in West Sussex. Through a daily waste monitoring process over three months, supported by Biffa, we identified that:

• 77% of the volume of plastic waste we disposed of was packaging.
• 40% of the plastic products we use also come in plastic packaging.
• We produced around 82 cubic metres of plastic waste in those three months

Across a year, this would be enough waste to fill the average family car boot over 800 times.

Our Plastic Action Plan

Armed with the insightful results of our research, we then worked with Biffa and Planet Mark to develop and publish a Plastic Action plan. It highlights where the industry should remove, improve, or keep plastic use and processes to tackle single-use plastic, move towards a more circular economy for plastic, and minimise the climate impacts of plastic use in construction. 

Working with partners and suppliers, our Plastic Action Plan also included insightful good practise case studies and key messages on plastic use from OnSite Support, Smile Plastics, Biffa, The Ocean Sheroes, and Surfers Against Sewage. 

Thakeham Plastic Pledge 

Working with Thakeham and our supply chain to reduce the volume of single-use plastic
Minimising plastic waste caused by errors or damage.

• Offering or taking part in takeback schemes for plastic materials, packaging containers, or protection where possible
• Offering or using plastics that contain recycled content where possible
• Training our staff on the sustainable use and disposal of plastics
• From 2025, we will be able to measure our impact on plastic so we can set measurable targets to reduce that impact.

With 13 partners on board, we held a series of workshops to discuss combined and individual business action against each of the six points within the plastic pledge.

Ongoing Supply Chain Engagement 

With the plastic pledge commitment from our supply chain and our own plastic action plan, the journey towards the responsible use of plastics is well underway.   

Nonetheless, we know there is a long way to go if we want to achieve a circular economy for plastics in the construction industry. Between now and the next Plastic Free July, we will continue to work with our supply chain to tackle plastic use, deliver our plastic action plan, and help our partners deliver theirs.