Hey Reader,

Let me start with a fictional scenario that might feel familiar:

We recently handed in an offer for a Design & Build tender. The client has high ambitions on circularity so we included the commitment to work with reused materials.

Together with the architect, we defined early in the design process that one option was to use reused wooden flooring in a meeting room that is the center piece of the building.

So now I’m looking for 80 m² of wooden floor and need to figure out:

• Where do we actually get the materials from?
• Who holds stock?
• And how realistic is it, timing-wise?

This episode is about where reuse lives today, at the start of 2026. Specifically through material banks in Belgium, and what they do beyond selling second-hand materials.

What do you mean by a “material bank”?

In this newsletter, a material bank — sometimes also called reuse center — is a very concrete thing:

This excludes digital platforms, internal depots of contractors or municipalities, as well as antique dealers, overstock sellers, and specialist salvage traders focused on a single material stream.

How to look for reuse materials today

If you’re looking for a starting point, the most complete overview of reuse actors today is Opalis.​

Opalis is a website listing more than 540 actors in BENELUX and France. The initiative was founded by Rotor and later joined by Bellastock. You have to check out the “documentation” session, it’s a real treasure of knowledge on reuse!

The overview doesn’t distinguish between a material bank, a niche stone dealer, or a second-hand pavement supplier.

Which can feel overwhelming.

Let’s make it concrete: Where do I get my 80 m² of wooden floor from?

• Open the opalis website
• Click on “Dealers”
• Use the filtering functions:
  • Country: Belgium
  • Materials: Interior finishings —> solid wood floors

The next step is to buy the materials. Here are some learnings I made:

• Don’t expect shiny webshops with live stock levels. Most websites give an indication at best. Pick up the phone or send a mail
• Be transparent what you’re looking for: 80 m² wooden floor for a meeting room that we need to install in 2 months.
• Be flexible if you can: Are you open for alternatives? Is oak really necessary or is beech fine as well?
• Start early: The more time, the higher the chances are they can find your dream material. Even if it’s not on stock today. Also, I learnt that Belgian material banks collaborate well with each other.

If you don’t want to do the work yourself, there are plenty of partners who support you with the complete process.

Platforms like Coliseum from Brussels, consultants or material banks that expanded their services.

Material banks are rarely “just” material banks

Most Belgian material banks have evolved into multi-service reuse actors. They are able to support along the process of finding the right materials.

Upstream

• Early design phase: advise how to integrate reuse targets in your projects and define potential materials
• Pre-deconstruction: reclamation audits which are inventories of reusable elements
• Dismantling: careful extraction, sorting and logistics. Often in collaboration with the deconstruction contractor.
• Preparation for reuse: cleaning, light refurbishment, quality control

“Core activity”

• Storage & sales: the visible shop

Downstream:

• Workshops and team buildings

Belgian material banks

To save you some time from scrolling through hundreds of reuse actors in Belgium, I created an overview of material banks in Belgium, grouped by region, status early 2026.

Reuse in Belgium is not evenly spread. There is a clear concentration along the Antwerp–Brussels–Ghent triangle.

West Flanders is emerging, Wallonia remains thinner, and Limburg is still absent.

Antwerp

​Buurman Antwerpen, located in the North of Antwerp, focuses on wood.

They are one of the older material banks, celebrating their 5 year anniversary this weekend.

Its stock includes reclaimed beams and panels, sports floors, surplus batches and urban trees recovered from the city. Last year, they started collaborating with wood importers, making big quantities available for projects.

Buurman combines its material bank with a fully equipped workshop space, offering woodworking courses, open atelier moments and team-building activities.*

*Please note: As a member of Buurman’s Board Of Directors I’m slightly biased. By the way: Buurman is looking to open new locations in Flanders & Brussels

East Flanders

Recupcentrale/ Scrap vzw is based at the Arsenaalsite in Gentbrugge. It offers a wide assortment of reclaimed materials, ranging from kitchens and sanitary ware to insulation, wood panels, glass, doors and lighting. Quantities are often modest, yet they recently seem to shift towards bigger quantities and reclamation projects.

Also in the Ghent region, Trovo positions itself more clearly in the professional construction reuse space. Based in Evergem, it combines dismantling, storage and online sales, with a focus on construction-relevant materials such as timber, insulation, façade elements and windows.

West Flanders

West Flanders has seen an increase in activity over the past two years.

​Materialenbank Roeselare (Mab.), operational since 2025, is a good example of this new wave. Located in the city centre, it offers a mix of reclaimed building materials: timber, windows and doors, sanitary equipment, tiles, insulation and lighting. Beyond the shop, Mab. invests in workshops and creative activities.

In the Kortrijk area, BENDig Materials focuses on industrial rest streams: unused materials, overproduction and leftovers from local manufacturing. It has one of the cleanest online shops around and focuses on designers, makers and researchers. BENDig shows that reuse is not only about buildings, but also about production and oversupply.

Flemish Brabant

​Materialenbank Leuven, operated by Atelier Circuler vzw since around 2021, focuses primarily on reclaimed timber and mineral materials, complemented by selected building components.

In addition to selling materials in Herent, it runs an open atelier, training programmes and collaborative projects.

Brussels

Brussels remains the most mature reuse ecosystem in Belgium, both in scale and professionalism.

​Rotor is the clear front-runner. Active for more than a decade, Rotor operates through a non-profit research arm and a worker-owned cooperative that runs the commercial reuse activities.

Rotor Deconstruction (Rotor DC) specialises in stony materials and interior elements in large quantities.

Its real strength lies in services: reclamation audits, support for large renovation projects, and sourcing materials at scale sometimes even beyond Belgium.

​BatiTerre further extends the Brussels ecosystem.

With locations in Brussels and Liège, BatiTerre combines a broad material range with dismantling, preparation for reuse and consultancy. Its model reflects the reality that reuse increasingly behaves like a construction service, not a retail activity.

Wallonia

Wallonia’s material bank landscape remains thinner, but it is not absent.

In Tournai, La Matériauthèque, part of the Ressourcerie Le Carré network, has been active since 2022.

It accepts donated construction materials and equipment in good condition and resells them at accessible prices to private individuals and professionals.

In Liège, BatiTerre provides one of the few more structured reuse options. Also, they are so far the only material bank that has several locations in Belgium.

Overall, Wallonia remains under-served compared to Flanders and Brussels, but there are signs of growth.

What remains hard

Despite real progress, reuse still struggles with timing, logistics and risk.

Construction projects take years from early design to execution.

Reuse materials appear when buildings are stripped, not when drawings are made.

Material banks cannot afford to store materials for three or four years without compensation. Space is expensive. Labour is intensive. Margins are thin.

Architects hesitate to design around materials that may not exist later. Contractors carry sourcing risk. Clients rarely want to reserve (read: pay for) stock years in advance.

Many material banks rely, at least partially, on public subsidies or cross-financing through services just to break even.

So there is still some way to go.

Take-away

Reuse in Belgium is no longer experimental.

But it is not yet the norm, although there are signals of progress.

Material banks are doing far more than selling second-hand materials.

Understanding where they are, how they work, and what they need is a first step toward making reuse normal rather than exceptional.

If I missed a material bank or got something wrong, let me know.

• What are your experiences with material banks?
• Where did you already but reused products?
• Are you interested to read about material banks in other countries?

Enjoy the rest of this beautiful Sunday. Have a great week!

Best,

Simon