A West Midlands housing association is aiming to become the first in the UK to build virtually plastic-free houses in its attempts to reduce the amount of plastic used during construction.
Accord Housing Association has announced that it will build 12 homes minimising the use of plastic during the construction process. The organisation will use alternatives when it comes to fitting the kitchens, bathrooms and windows, as well as reducing the amount of plastic used in building materials.
Accord believes this will be the first project of its kind in the UK.
The houses will be built by Accord’s offsite manufacturing arm LoCaL Homes, which uses the latest modern methods of construction to manufacture high quality, super energy efficient houses.
Carl Taylor, assistant director of new businesses at Accord, said: “We believe this type of development hasn’t been done at scale before. There have been a few one-off attempts, but nobody has really looked at how we could produce mainstream houses with all the amenities without using plastic.
“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. 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.”
The project is part of the CHARM partnership (Circular Housing Asset Renovation & Management) funded by Interreg European Funding, which is made up of representatives from Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Each country has been given a different project to lead on, which aims to promote a “virtuous circle” economy in the housing construction sector.
Alan Yates, deputy chief executive at Accord, added: “We are delighted to be leading on this project in the UK and have started design work which will finish in January 2020 and we will then start the development work in 2020.
“Our closed timber framed houses have allowed us to build on low carbon housing development and we have developed technology to build low carbon houses. Now it is about taking that technology a step forward to reduce the use of materials that are not good for the environment both during manufacture and construction and for years to come. This project will change how we manufacture our homes forever.”
Picture: An example of what the homes could look like
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Will you be looking to replace the plastic in the construction of all drainage and waste system, above and below ground?
Looking at the picture, “an example of what the homes could look like”, it seems to me that more imagination in design is required to meet the requirements of local plans where good design, that adds or enhances the area and spatial environment, is one of the criteria to meet.