Tarmac has committed to embracing circular economy principles and reducing waste across its operations, the company has signed a charter produced by The Pallet LOOP – an innovative scheme aimed at minimising the consumption of single-use pallets in the construction industry.

Around 18 million pallets are estimated to be used annually in the UK construction sector, but less than 10 per cent are reused. In response, The Pallet LOOP scheme allows manufacturers to pay a deposit for distinctively-branded 100 per cent FSC-certified green pallets, which are used to transport products to construction sites and have been specifically engineered to be more durable and sustainable.

As LOOP pallets move through the supply chain, a deposit passes from manufacturer to merchant to end user. Once used, stacked and stored, the scheme operator collects the pallets and returns deposits, before repairing pallets as necessary and recirculating them.

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Garry Gregory, Packed Products director at Tarmac, said: "We're committed to working towards achieving a circular economy and our approach to this starts with designing out waste wherever we possibly can across our operations.

"The Pallet LOOP is a positive and effective initiative which is already helping to reduce construction waste by transforming the way in which pallets are used – and turning them into valuable returnable assets. We're pleased to have signed up and would encourage others from across the construction industry to do the same."

Paul Lewis, Founder of The Pallet LOOP, said: "We are delighted that Tarmac has signed our charter and committed to a comprehensive evaluation of how our circular economy pallet reuse scheme could work across its operations.

"The beauty of the LOOP model lies in its simplicity. While helping the construction sector achieve its net zero and zero avoidable waste targets, The Pallet LOOP will also deliver significant cost savings and efficiencies to the end-to-end building materials supply chain. We've already sent sample pallets over to Tarmac for testing and look forward to working with the team over the coming months to explore their distribution requirements and the clear advantages to be gained from moving away from single use pallets."

Tarmac's ongoing sustainability commitment has seen the company achieve a 24 per cent reduction in CO2 per tonne of product since 1990 and use over seven million tonnes of recycled and secondary materials from other industries in 2020 alone.

Other recent initiatives have included changing all of the plastic packaging from its bagged products to a minimum of 30 per cent recycled content. To find out more, visit: tarmac.com/sustainability/