The Reuse Now campaign has been gaining momentum over the last couple of years, as much to do with the great companies and individuals we work with, and that the industry is becoming more aware of circularity, as the focus the ASBP team have given to it. It does bring to mind the phrase ‘there’s nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come’. With the Circular Economy Growth Plan* for England due to be published this year and the EU Circular Economy Act** (a key part of the new EU Clean Industrial Deal) set to push for systemic change, encouraging markets for circular products and unlocking investment, it definitely feels like this year will push the market further and faster. We have our collective fingers crossed.
Taking a quick look back at our four webinars over the last year – with content still available on the links: Exploring Reuse Opportunities: Below ground products and materials; Reusing Concrete in Construction and Reusing Timber in Construction with the theme of the reuse of structural materials following on from our DISRUPT Reuse of Steel work. The reuse of steel is definitely the more advanced of the three, but with exciting pilot projects taking place to reuse concrete – where slabs are precision cut from one area and reused in another, and even instances where whole floors have been jacked up to adapt spaces and avoid demolition. The reuse of timber has been done for centuries – a renewable material that can improve with age, sequesters carbon and can be cascaded back to earth – but timber’s unique characteristics can also make it harder to standardise testing and processes for reuse, the sector is striving to figure out a system to support higher value reuse at scale.
The Reuse of Glass Partitioning Systems webinar gave an overview of the findings from The Reuse of Glass Partitioning Systems deep dive, a practical guide for those looking to design for reuse, or deconstruct and reuse. As part of this work we added three new case studies to our increasing library of reuse projects. The guide has been well received by the sector and supported by the Finishes and Interiors Sector – we are working with them on our next deep dive on the Reuse of Doors.
We hosted two in person events – the third in our series of ‘From Demolition to Deconstruction’ events was held in June. The three events – in Wolverhampton, Bristol and Manchester – brought together a cross section of construction disciplines to hear interesting case studies and have honest discussions around the challenges and opportunities around deconstruction, a blog will be coming soon and a follow up round table on this in the coming months. Our second face to face event was our annual Reuse Summit which took place in October and focussed on reframing circularity to bring in a wider audience outside of what can quite often be a bit of a ‘sustainability bubble’. A summary of that event can be found here 2025 Reuse Summit Report. 
Across the year our events had over 380 attendees we had 5000+ hits across our reuse pages, and 400+ on demand catch ups of our webinars, demonstrating the interest from the industry to learn more about circular economy and reuse.
The team attended some great events, took part in many discussions and spoke on a number of panels in 2025, with perhaps the stand out event, not least for numbers attending, being Circular Revolutions https://uk.architectsdeclare.com/a-circular-revolution-call-to-action which incorporated a spin on the London Eye. The huge turnout of over 400 people, and the follow up ‘call for action’, really gave something to think about for those ‘keeping an eye’ on where the industry is at in terms of interest and adoption of circularity.
*The Circular Economy Growth Plan is due to set out how government will deliver a more circular and more prosperous economy, driving their work to go beyond existing reforms to repair, reuse and recycle more of what we have and reduce residual waste. It will initially target 5 sectors textiles, transport, construction, agri-food, and chemical and plastics sectors.
**Due for adoption in 2026, the Circular Economy Act aims to establish a Single Market for secondary raw materials, increase the supply of high-quality recycled materials and stimulate demand for these materials within the EU, impacting the UK market in the process.
Looking forward into 2026
This year will hopefully be a progressive year for the circular economy. Having now exceeded the 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels climate change target, there is even more urgency to accelerate the adoption of circular strategies and practices, to reduce carbon emissions, maximise secondary resources and minimise waste.
Our Reuse Now campaign starts the year with a new sponsor, the Concrete Centre, joining Cleveland Steel & Tubes, Optima and Reusefully to support our initiatives. As with all ASBP’s outputs the Reuse Now campaign aims to provide pragmatic, useful resources that fills gaps in knowledge and guidance, signposting where others have already done great work, and giving a platform to those ‘on the ground’ so that those trying to do the same can be given a helping hand. through learning from the valuable experiences – good and bad – of others.
We are midway through a deep dive on the Reuse of Doors, reviewing another important product group that often ends up in skips, with a report due to be published in Q2. Our first webinar of the year was on the 9th February is going back to basics to discuss the True Cost of Waste. Whilst our aspirations need to be firmly up there at Rethink and Reuse whenever that is feasible, there is still A LOT to do further down the ‘R ladder’ at Recycle and the prevention of waste (zero avoidable waste) alongside that. The aim of this webinar was to give our members and the wider industry some renewed motivation and ideas to go back and tackle an age old problem we still haven’t quite cracked.
Activities being planned include a webinar on Policy & Regulations, a deconstruction focussed round table, next steps on the reuse infrastructure initiative with ACAN, the 2026 Reuse Summit in the autumn, and to continue to work closely with others at the forefront of reuse to drive knowledge sharing, best practice and accelerate the adoption of secondary materials in our industry. Oh and it looks like the next deep dive will be on the Reuse of Bricks!
Please get in touch if you have any ideas for activities, would like us to work with you on a research project, are interested in ASBP membership or Reuse Now sponsorship. More information on the campaign can be found here https://asbp.org.uk/workstream/reuse
Thank you to our campaign sponsors – Cleveland Steel & Tubes, Optima, the Concrete Centre, and Reusefully
