Recycling | Interview with Dr. Reyes Garcia—Session Chair of the 1st International Online Conference on Recycling (IOCRe2026), 7–8 September 2026

Welcoming message from the session Chair:

Hello! My name is Reyes Garcia, an Associate Professor in structural engineering at the University of Warwick (UK) and Convenor of our Built Environment and Sustainability Research Cluster. I will have the privilege of chairing “Session 5: Challenges and Opportunities in Construction and Demolition Waste” in the upcoming 1st International Online Conference on Recycling (IOCRe2026), so I look forward to seeing you there!

1. Could you introduce your current research direction and provide an update on your progress?
Sure! The construction and building industry is a huge emitter of CO₂ and therefore there is a pressing need to speed up the net zero transition. Much of my current research focuses on decarbonising the construction industry, mainly through the development of low-carbon materials and the circular use of construction and demolition waste, as well as on the use of waste streams from other large industries (tyres, glass, plastics) into construction. In the last few years, my team and I have been developing Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) solutions with crushed concrete from demolished structures. We use experimental techniques at different scales, advanced numerical analyses and AI/ML to understand and model the short- and long-term performance of RAC composite slabs, beams and columns subjected to severe environments and extreme loads.

2. Have you encountered any challenges in your research, and how did you overcome them?
Absolutely, one of the initial hurdles I found is that the construction industry tends to be very conservative and therefore not very keen to adopt some of our solutions. This is somewhat understandable given the complex regulatory frameworks and climate conditions under which the industry has to operate. I think there is no “silver bullet” to get around these challenges, but I have found that getting a proper understanding of the industry’s needs, maintaining a flexible approach in research that leads to specific/useful outcomes (including demonstration projects), and engaging with good industry contacts before any work starts can help overcome some of the challenges. This is why in recent years some of our RAC solutions have been adopted in actual projects in Asia.

3. What do you think makes IOCRe2026 stand out from other conferences?
There are a few things I can think of, but I will only pinpoint two for the sake of brevity! The first is that the conference covers a wide range of topics. Many of us have the tendency to “tunnel vision” our work and research, so we can easily lose track of what is happening around us. This conference can help participants to clearly see where their work fits within the wider landscape of recycling. The second one is that, being an online conference, participants can attend from anywhere in the world. This also saves lots of travelling time and CO₂ emissions, so Planet Earth will be very thankful.

4. As the Session Chair of IOCRe2026, what would you hope this conference will be for all the scholars out there?
My hope is that the conference serves as an effective catalyst for showcasing our participants’ work to a global audience, in turn opening opportunities to expand their network, finding potential collaborators, and ultimately advancing their professional/academic careers. As a young researcher I always found special sessions particularly stimulating as I had the chance to learn from top academics and professionals in the field. Quite often they would also provide advice to make me think “out of the box”, which was extremely helpful at that stage of my career.

5. What are your thoughts on the current trends and developments in open access publishing?
In my opinion, open access publishing is the future. Many of us lead research projects sponsored by our national research councils/agencies, which are effectively funded by taxpayers’ money. It just seems right that the outputs are freely available to anyone, provided there are no ethical or security concerns of course. Personally, I believe all publishers should be moving to a fully online open access model.