Resistance to change, pallet waste and EPR regulations: in conversation with Jeff May, Deputy Chief of the Construction Products Association

This article is part of our In Conversation series, where we take an in-depth look at UK and global industry with leading figures. In this series, we welcomed Jeff May, Deputy Chief of the Construction Products Association, who talked about pallet waste, resistance to change within the construction industry and new packaging regulations.

The Construction Products Association (CPA) was established in 2000, following the merger between the National Council of Building Materials Producers and the Association of Construction Products Suppliers. The UK products manufacturing sector directly provides jobs for 400,000 people across 27,000 companies and has an annual turnover of more than £68 billion; the CPA represents 85% of the industry by value.  

The pallet industry supplies 20 million 2-way and 4-way pallets per year to the construction industry, yet only 10% are reused, according to the continental publication, Packaging Europe.

Speaking about why there is such a small percentage of pallets that get reused within the construction sector, May says:

“There’s plenty of blame to go around.

“Construction is often stuck in the same old, same old, and so, getting change across has always been much more difficult for UK construction. It’s a very siloed industry. The manufacturers versus the builders, versus the architects, versus the facilities management teams. It just runs the gamut and often there’s a push-pull about everything from who’s going to pay for it, to who’s going to accept the risk and the responsibility. This can make UK construction very adversarial and instead of focusing on solutions, the industry can be very focused on near term concerns.”

Jeff May argues that the lack of urgency around low pallet reuse rates within the sector is a call to action for UK construction industry players.

“It shows there is a responsibility, quite frankly, for us to address this. The numbers are scary, 20 million pallets, with such a small recycling rate. That’s a lot of waste, a lot of carbon that’s gone. It doesn’t make good business sense. It’s not a good look for the industry.

“I think there are a lot of things people just kind of take for granted. They don’t even think about it. They trip over pallets; they ignore pallets.”

When asked about sweeping packaging reforms that put the responsibility of recycling onto the producer, known as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which came into effect in April 2025, Jeff May says:

“Our main argument is that the government is not ready because the government’s policy is not well thought through, it is not well considered.

“They really have struggled, within government, to understand how construction waste is generated and where it goes. They have a very simplistic idea and, I kid you not, but they have a very simplistic idea that most of the waste in construction ends up in some lady’s bin at the end of the drive.

“So that’s the first problem. The second problem is that the government have come back and said, “well, show us the data” and that’s a really interesting challenge because you have to get manufacturers, merchants, logistics and waste management companies to break out that data.

“We’re forced to work together seamlessly, and share data, for example, about an issue like packaging and waste, where we suddenly come face to face with the reality that we’re very much at a disadvantage – some of this we bring upon ourselves and it shows the need for us to be investing in modern solutions.”

Whilst the CPA and others wrestle with serious issues around packaging waste, Jeff May reminds us that there is so much to be excited about going forward:

“The construction industry has tremendous potential in this country.

“If you think about new homes, new schools and new hospitals for communities that desperately need them, if you think about the roads, the potholes, the high-speed rail connections and you think about a cleaner environment for tomorrow, the construction industry is smack in the middle of it.

“You want high speed rail? You want a more productive society? You need roads that get people from East to West? You’re going to have a construction industry that is ready to respond and maintain. That’s really exciting to be a part of and there are modern solutions being brought forward with tech and pallets. It’s fun to be a part of that.”

Get in touch today to find out more about how Junction 4 Pallets supports the construction industry!