The IRCOW Project claims for selective demolition
25/10/2013
IRCOW stands for Innovative Strategies for High-Grade Material Recovery from Construction and Demolition Waste.
The main goal of the IRCOW project, funded by the European Union, was to develop and validate technological solutions to achieve an efficient material recovery from C&D waste by considering a life cycle perspective.
The Project organized a final conference on October 24th, 2013, in Brussels.
EDA was present on this final meeting of the project, as it has being during several of its meetings.
The conference day was divided into five thematic sessions:
- Reuse.
- Recycling.
- New Products.
- Market and environmental issues.
- Wrap up session.
The key topics addressed were:
- Smart and efficient processes to enable reuse of building components recovered from C&DW.
- Innovative sorting technologies for C&DW recycling systems.
- High-grade construction materials and components from recycled C&DW.
- Innovations in practice: results of the IRCOW case studies (approaches and products).
- Techno-economic and environmental assessments of innovative technologies and products.
- Expert recycling tool assessing environmental and human health risks.
- E-tool for C&DW recovered materials reuse.
- Policy recommendations.
For the demolition industry, the main conclusions of this meeting are that several organisations and institutes are developing new products from Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW). In fact, some of these products were presented at the conference.
For reusing, recycling and creating these new products a selective demolition is mandatory. The technology to separate metal, aggregates, plastics or fibers is already in operation.
Studies conducted by the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) indicate that environmental and human health risks from these recycled products are smaller than the original materials.
Also, during the conference was presented an initiative to create a database for recycled materials coming from C&DW. The main purpose of this web based project is to create a market for reusable and recycled materials.
The final discussion highlighted the difficulty of developing such projects if a selective demolition it is not conducted.
Demolition companies, present at the conference, agreed on the approach but pointed out the cost of operations, which someone would have to pay for.
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