SUSTAINABILITY
THE GREEN REVOLUTION
The circular economy has been talked about for years, and is now, steadily, becoming more of a reality for producers of building materials and their customers. Fiona Russell Horne finds out the latest on that frontline from The Pallet LOOP.
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uilding materials, once made and sold, need delivering. Every year, around 20 million pallets deliver materials from manufacturer to merchants’ yards and building sites. What happens to them after that is a question that has vexed the industry for years. Estimates suggest that fewer than 10% of pallets are recovered and reused. Instead, they are sent to waste – which has a cost attached - destroyed or dumped.
There have been schemes in the past to try and recycled and reuse them, with varying degrees of success and cost. Sorting and storing pallets in order to return them isn’t high on anyone’s – merchant or major housebuilding contractor - list of favourite jobs. So, a few years ago, The Pallet LOOP recognised that an incentive to do so would be required.
Using circular economics, and working in partnership with fellow BSW Group company Scott Pallets, The Pallet LOOP has developed pallets that are engineered to be used multiple times throughout the supply chain, for a wide range of materials. They are green, so it’s easy to identify them on site, and the nationwide pallet collection service in place, gives those registered returnees – e.g., merchants – up to £4 for each LOOP pallet collected from them. Just under a year ago, the first LOOP pallets entered the building materials supply chain carrying British Gypsum’s bagged plaster products. They were followed by fellow Saint Gobain company Isover, and now, with some new pallet specifications, approximately 90% of products made by British Gypsum are distributed on Pallet LOOP’s green pallets. Insulation manufacturer Superglass will also
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start using the green pallets from next month; discussions with other manufacturers are ongoing, some at an advanced stage. Since May last year, The Pallet LOOP has issued more than 700,000 pallets. In December 2024 the return rate was 35%, and more than £2 million has been saved by UK construction by diverting pallets from skips - as of the end of January.
“ I’ve yet to meet anyone in the merchant sector who thinks this is a daft idea, which will never work,” says Rob Devonshire, merchant account manager at The Pallet LOOP. He says that, while the concept has been around for a few years, the message is now starting to spread. “If a branch manager doesn’t like the system, if it’s too much hassle for them they will soon tell us. But we see and hear them grasp the idea from the start. And most of them particularly like the fact that we are not pushing another pallet-deposit scheme, but something that brings a real financial benefit. They will get money onto their bottom line for every green pallet that they return to us.” Devonshire says that this means it’s in the merchants’ interest to get as many of their suppliers using green LOOP pallets as possible.
He adds: “What’s encouraging is how different branches collaborate. One might have a smaller yard, and therefore struggle to store pallets before getting to the minimum collection levels, but by working with another that has more space, they can play their part in the circular economy, and benefit their bottom lines with the LOOP payments.” Dealing with waste is only going to get more complicated, and costly, as legislation tightens up, Devonshire believes. “What we
are offering merchants is a way of dealing with that issue that brings them benefits to their bottom line. In a year that we all know is likely to be tough, people are looking at every possible revenue stream, and every cost they can. It doesn’t take very long for them to realise that spending thousands a year on skips and waste management is not only awful for the environment, but means they are missing out on a revenue stream.”
Getting on board He continues: “If people arrive at The Pallet LOOP from a sustainability angle that’s great, if they come via the financial money-back route that’s great too. The important thing is that they get there.”
The company is now an official service provider to the IBC Buying Group. Devonshire says “This is a great development because the vast majority of their members are individual branches, so we are getting the message out to the people who make the decisions in branch. We’ve found that as soon as the branches can see the benefit, they are talking to their colleagues and spreading the message themselves
At STARK Building Materials, product sustainability director Rich Sykes says branches have been very receptive to the scheme,
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2025
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