Why is so difficult to reuse construction products?
The term reuse means to use something again for the same purpose. It is a key aspect of circular economy, though in construction it is usually not an option, as it uses to be economically unfeasible.
Reusing an asset clearly avoids the consumption of raw materials and value-leakage from the asset through the disposal of demolished resources. For that matter, ideally, when construction products are needed, where possible, they should be reused from other demolished assets.
But this idea is just that, an idea, as it is extremely complicated to perform it.
When trying to reuse in construction various problems arise:
- To recover the materials from a demolition properly, so that they are suitable for reuse, many means are required, both human and technical, which in many cases make it more expensive to reuse than to buy new products.
- On many occasions, even though the materials are recovered in an ideal way, and they are prepared for reuse, there is not yet a place to reuse them, so they must be stored for an indeterminate time until someone is going to use them, with the economic expenses that such storage entails.
- Related to the above, there is not yet a well-established market for reused products, so many times, even if the products are ready for its reuse, it is difficult to find a buyer for them, which prolongs the storage time makes no worth the time and money expend in the material recovery.
- Sometimes intending to do the best for the environment, reusing products, and saving raw materials that way, its ends up harming such environment even more. For example, transporting reused products for far greater distances than local virgin products.
In this sense, various actions at different points in the life cycle of a construction can be carried out to promote reuse. The following are some examples of them:
- Help to create and establish a good and solid market for buying and selling this type of product.
- Put in contact who is going to demolish a construction with who is going to build another with similar characteristics in the same area the promote the direct reuse of the demolishes products, avoiding that way two problems: the need for their storage and the difficulty of finding a buyer.
For example, if a building is being demolished and in the same area a new building is to be constructed, an agreement could be reached to use doors, windows, etc., or any other asset that is in good condition, from the building to be demolished in the building to be built.
- Just from the design phase of a construction, take into account its future demolition/dismantling. Designing for simple disassembly allows products to be simply and cheaply disassembled into constituent products at the end of use, ready for the next use, so that they can be reused.
- Take-back/buy-back is an initiative that refers to end-of-use construction products being taken or bought back by a manufacturer (who may be the original manufacturer or another from the same product sector).
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