Trigger, for the benefit of those under 30, was a street sweeper in the 1980s sitcom Only Fools and Horses, who memorably boasted of having had the same broom for 20 years. When challenged, he explained that it had 17 new heads and 14 new handles during that time.
“A house is the same,” Mr Taylor explains. “When a kitchen unit gets scrapped, it ends up in landfill. The central heating system will last for eight years. The bathroom – 22 years. The electrics – 18 years, maybe.
So in the lifetime, while the house stays there, everything inside it gets changed fairly frequently. And when it does, it ends up in landfill because that’s the nature of how the industry works.”
All of this work has added cost. The project has cost around £800 per square metre more than a traditional build. This is something that is viable with the EU grant, but would not be on a scheme that has been funded more traditionally. And some of these costs would be higher today, with metal prices soaring.
There are savings to be had over time. The kitchen, bathrooms and pipes will last longer, and there will be lower maintenance costs. However, this is very much a project which demonstrates alternatives rather than one which will be directly used elsewhere. But this may change.
“We think this is ahead of its time,” says Mr Taylor. “We see what’s happened to fuel prices. Plastic is a by-product of fuel. As the world warms, we won’t be able to burn fuel as we want and people will look for plastic-free alternatives. This was a step to see how far we could go and what lessons we could learn. Our mainstream developments will take lessons from this.”
As we move to a more sustainable future, we will all have to reduce our reliance on the plastic which is such an ubiquitous part of our lives. The housebuilding industry is no different, and this project points a way forward.
“We want people to learn from this,” states Mr Taylor. “You don’t expect people to suddenly say, ‘Let’s build everything plastic free’, because it’s not that simple. But we’ve achieved this now, it’s here for people to come and look at and learn from and think about what we could change.”
