Feasibility Study of Regional Materials Reuse Hubs in Scotland

The circularity gap report Scotland 2022 explored several potential strategic interventions for Scotland’s built environment that could help create a more resource-efficient building stock and enhance the adoption of circular construction practices.  

As well as proposing the increased uptake of renovation, retrofitting practises, and improved monitoring of materials flows during construction, the report also emphasised the need for a prioritisation of local construction materials and supply chains. This is an intervention that has also been presented, subsequently, as part of a series of national development statements in Scotland’s National Planning Framework 4.

When combined, these interventions were predicted to result in a material consumption reduction of 11.2% across Scotland’s housing stock, and an estimated 11.5% decrease in the associated carbon emissions.  

The key focus of this report, commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland, was to investigate and improve understanding of the feasibility of regional materials reuse hubs in Scotland, as a means of enabling the adoption of circular practices in the built environment.  

Through review of existing literature on this subject and a series of stakeholder engagement activities, evidence used to inform this report was gathered to meet the following research objectives:  

• understand the feasibility of establishing regional materials reuse hubs in Scotland to reduce waste from construction and demolition activities
• capture insights into the barriers, enablers, and potential market opportunities for regional material hubs in Scotland
• develop recommendations for addressing the immediate challenges, including increasing awareness of viable circular opportunities, incentivisation mechanisms, and the piloting of reuse hubs for proof of concept and scaling of economic opportunities.