Webinar: Building a Circular Value Chain for Construction Plastics

Building a Circular Value Chain for Construction Plastics This webinar was held on May 26, 2026 While attention has been focused on single-use consumer plastics, plastic generated from construction and renovation activities remain largely invisible in current recovery systems and circular economy strategies, despite representing an estimated 2.5 per cent of all waste generated across Canada. As a first-of-its-kind pilot in Canada, Light House’s Construction Plastics Initiative (CPI) brings visibility to how plastics move through active construction sites and where opportunities for recovery and reuse exist. This webinar will unveil the findings from this 14-month project, offering a rare look at the scale, composition, and recyclability of construction-phase plastics. Grounded in site-level research across eight live construction projects in Metro Vancouver, CPI represents a major step forward in understanding and addressing a complex, system-wide challenge. Attendees will gain insight into the types, quantities, and recyclability of plastics generated during construction. The session will also explore what it takes to move from a linear to a circular system, including practical interventions across collection, sorting, processing, and manufacturing. Pilot participants will reflect on the feasibility of scaling these systems to advance circularity on a national level.