How important are the construction activities for circular economy?

Construction activities represent the largest material storage and waste stream in the whole economy worldwide. With this only statement, it seems very clear that these activities are a basic pillar of the development of a real circular economy.

To get an idea of ​​the magnitude of the aforementioned, take a look at the following figure:

Every year, new construction materials are produced, and billions of tons of demolition material are processed all around the world, with the heavy impact on the environment that it involves. Reusing materials taken from demolition jobs and doing high-quality recycling of those demolition materials which cannot be reused, will lead to reducing the necessity of using raw materials for construction. All these actions will definitely have a big impact on environmental protection, permitting the establishment of a circular economy in construction activities.

Furthermore, it must be noted that construction activities are required in a lot of sectors of various types (sanitary, industrial, livestock, etc.), and all of them must always be considered and included in the circular economy strategy to achieve the goal of establishing such a circular economy. Otherwise, due to their extent, such a strategy will be a failure, and a circular economy will not be established.

So, ultimately to answer the question of “how important are construction activities for circular economy?”, it must be said that they are indispensable. Due to the magnitude and extent of these activities, a circular economy cannot be achieved without including them in the strategy.

In this sense, given its importance, it is imperative that construction and demolition activities finally start to move away from the linear economy model to the circular economy.

But to do so, the companies involved will have to change their working methods, buy new equipment, new machinery and possibly even hire more staff.

All of this entails associated costs which, today, in general, if companies do not want to lose their profit, they will have to pass on to their customers. This fact can go against the implementation of the circular economy because, on many occasions, these clients will choose to hire other companies that, although they are not committed to the principles of the circular economy, will do the work for them more economically.

Therefore, it is imperative that the authorities begin to consider these externalities that the implementation of the principles of the circular economy entails for the companies involved, adjusting the taxation applied to them.

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