Light House releases results from construction plastics pilot in Metro Vancouver

Light House, an organization focused on advancing regenerative and circular practices in the built environment, has released results from the Construction Plastics Initiative (CPI), a 14-month pilot that tracked plastics across eight active construction sites in Metro Vancouver.

The initiative demonstrated how these materials can be recovered and reintegrated into new building materials under real-world conditions. The pilot marks one of the first efforts in North America to follow construction plastics from job sites through collection, sorting, processing, and manufacturing.

Launched by Light House in 2024, CPI was created to address a major gap in how plastic waste is understood and managed in construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) activities.

Delivered in partnership with contractors including Aecon, EllisDon, and Scott Construction, the study followed plastics across major projects, including the Holdom Overpass Project in Burnaby, PNE Amphitheatre, Steveston Community Centre and Library, Cloverly School, Amazon and Microsoft tenant improvement projects, and Lynn Fripps Elementary School. Together, these projects provided a  dataset and a clear picture of how construction plastics are generated, handled, and what can be recovered in practice.

“We started this as a pilot to better understand construction plastics, but what it reveals is a much larger opportunity for the industry. There is a consistent and recoverable stream of material being generated across projects, and this work begins to show how that could be captured and kept in use at a much broader scale,” said Gil Yaron, managing director of circular innovation at Light House.

Across participating sites, more than 38,000 kilograms of plastic were collected. Of the 34,268 kilograms sent for sorting, approximately 77 per cent was successfully classified for recycling.

The strongest results were observed in clean, packaging-related materials such as films and wraps. Approximately 23 per cent could not be processed due to contamination, handling conditions, or system limitations, despite being technically recyclable, which demonstrates that much of what is lost is recoverable with the right systems in place.

Plastics generated during construction are often dominated by packaging materials. Light House notes that these materials are typically clean, consistent, and produced in high volumes, making them among the most readily recoverable plastics on construction sites.

Building on these findings, the pilot also demonstrated how these materials can be put back into use. Plastics recovered through CPI were processed into recycled pellets and supplied to Plascon Plastics, where they were used to manufacture components for InfinaNet, a structural system developed by Vancouver-based Infina Technologies, a venture supported through Light House’s Circular Construction Accelerator (CCA).

InfinaNet reduces the amount of concrete required in floor slabs for multi-unit residential projects by up to 30 per cent, demonstrating how recovered materials can support more efficient and lower-carbon construction.

The Government of Canada, through PacifiCan, has invested over $1 million in CCA to accelerate the growth of green building companies in B.C.

Across Canada, more than 7 million tonnes of plastic enter the market annually. Only 26.5 per cent is diverted, and just 5.3 per cent is recycled, with essentially no recovery from the construction sector.

Plastic waste from construction sites accounts for more than 30 per cent of all plastic waste generated in Canada. Most of this material continues to move through a linear system in which products are manufactured, used briefly, and then discarded. This positions construction plastics as a significant and largely untapped opportunity to recover materials that are already being generated at scale.

Light House notes that scaling this approach across the industry will require consistent recovery pathways that can capture, separate, and process materials across construction sites.

The report identifies what is needed to support that shift, including improved tracking through the Federal Plastics Registry, expanded producer responsibility for construction-related plastics and packaging, more localized consolidation and receiving hubs, and policy tools such as variable tipping fees, landfill bans on recoverable plastics, and incentives for manufacturers using post-consumer recycled resin.

This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada and through the CleanBC Plastics Action Fund.

Future phases will focus on expanding participation, improving recovery pathways, and embedding circular practices across the construction sector.