Buckshee: Like Ebay and Screwfix Had a Baby
Sometimes when you interview people, you wish they could invent something to give someone a hug or slap on the back for what they are telling you.
Marc Burrow made me feel that way when he introduced his new service - and that wasn't the only feeling I had. But more of that later.
Marc has a ton of experience in the built environment. At about the same time I was digging out the foundations of my first extension project, Marc was walking the path to become a Quantity Surveyor. But he had a heavy tread.
In his own words;
"I wasn't very good at it. I didn't want to do that job."
As he tried roles like facilities management, project management and construction site coordination, he consistently witnessed something anyone will have seen with a year or more of site experience;
"There were perfectly good doors, sinks, window, insulation, some still on pallets and even wrapped - just being skipped on the site."
After a covid project turned into a man cave, self sourced and constructed for under £1,000 from rejects (which should have cost £6,000 just in materials), Marc hit upon an idea.
The Big Plan
Like all good origin stories, there needs to be a bit of inspiration, a bit of luck and coincidence then fate has to get involved. Marc "knew a guy" with a bit of software experience (he's being demure - his partner exited a renowned business which was a roaring success). And they came up with this;
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Buckshee is a web and mobile marketplace launching in 2026 which unites the top of the food chain, Tier 1 contractors and major infrastructure and building projects - to everyone from Architects and local builders to DIYers building pizza ovens.
It makes the waste and surplus from sites get used for the purpose it was made for.
It locks in the carbon already expended in producing materials and products and instead of multiplying the carbon impact with processing, crushing or landfill, it intercepts it and delivers 'waste', back to work.
What Makes It Sexy
If you can skip landfill costs (pun intended) - eliminate transport costs of the waste and fulfil your commitments to ESG targets better - there really is no losers.
But what makes the Buckshee proposition more exciting than a Somerset cider festival is that the market for the materials already exists.
Whaaat? Someone could be shouting from the back of the auditorium.
According to the latest Repair Maintenance and Improvement (RMI) figures from the Office for National Statistics Brits spend over £69 Billion a year, making our country piles bigger, installing kitchens and plunge pools and generally tarting our smaller, meagre homes up.
Construction Statistics team
That doesn't account for the equally significant DIY market - currently valued at approximately £38 billion in the last reporting period.
So the sum of these parts is that Buckshee bridges the gap between construction 'waste' - to smaller scale builders, architects and homeowners who can use the surplus.
What Makes It Essential
Marc makes a really good point in our interview.
“Sustainability in construction today is what health and safety was 20 years ago - soon, not doing it will be a badge of shame.”
These days if you turn up on site without PPE or clamber onto a roof without harnesses or scaffolding in place - you're as likely to have a member of the public report you than a site visitor. And rightly so.
So how long is it until skips full of sinks becomes a subject of shame?
Case Studies - How It Is Already Working
Marc has been running Buckshee in beta testing. And they've already had some remarkable wins;
Blackfriars office block
Eight bronze-tinted 8ft × 4ft glass panels (£350 each) destined for recycling were repurposed into a barn conversion overlooking the Norfolk Broads.
“They’re now doing what they were always meant to do — be a window.”
Nursing home air-conditioning
Ceiling cassette units removed from an office block were reused to cool a care home that couldn’t afford new AC — “a proper good-news story.”
Fire doors
44 reclaimed fire doors retested, re-certified, or reused as standard doors.
Carpet tiles to classrooms
Almost-new commercial carpet tiles redeployed in underfunded schools.
Structural timber
Offcuts became memorial benches at a school in Poulton-le-Fylde.
“Black stock” from electrical wholesalers
Pallets of brand-new light fittings (never sold, never opened) were being forklifted into skips. Buckshee now offers a resale route:
“They’ll sell them for a couple of quid instead of £65 each — everyone wins.”
Why This Matters To Us
Buckshee is a great idea not just for cutting the waste of landfill but it locks in the embodied carbon of materials which are part of the hardest source of emissions from construction.
The beta has proved the concept - the speed with which these materials are snapped up resolves the storage and skip costs aligned with existing practices.
Most importantly, the advanced tracking system Marc and his team have created means that his solution is super attractive to companies that need to report on their ESG compliance.
Finally - this isn't a fly by night operation - Marc is going national. So that means contractors and the customers for this service, can source the materials from local projects near them - that's a powerful scaling up of a solution that solves a national disgrace.
What It Means For Retrofit
The other feeling I had listening to Marc, is a sense of hope. Retrofit is not yet in full swing in the UK. Part of that inertia is that refurbishment is not yet a byword for homes and peoples lives. The more we can do to broaden the appeal of a cycle of sustainability, means that slowly, but hopefully a bit faster - we can transform the built environment into a showpiece for how to live a bit better on this tiny green planet.
What You Can Do
If you are an architect, local builder or just a homeowner - pass this site address around and sign up now. As soon as it's on general release - the materials will be flying out the door faster than a Yorkshire whippet down a rabbit hole.
If you're part of a Tier one organisation, you'll be welcomed into the Buckshee fold with open arms, your shareholders, ESG compliance team and site managers - will love you for it.