What are the challenges and opportunities for circular economy in construction activities?

It is obvious that a circular economy must be established in all construction activities. In this regard, there are a lot of opportunities derived from this change of paradigm, although, there still existing a lot of challenges too.

OPPORTUNITIES:

When transforming traditional construction activities to circular economy-based ones, there exist a lot of opportunities for companies to expand and/or transform their principal activity.

Four important strategies that may be chosen in this regard are the following ones:

  • Achieving high-quality recycling of demolition waste: this way fewer primary raw materials will be needed in new construction.
  • Limiting the use of raw materials: this way the use of recycled and reused materials will be incentivized.
  • Designing new constructions and products considering their future demolition: this way the construction may be designed with demountable, allowing their further reused. As well as the construction materials will allow easy separation and recycling.
  • Designing modular constructions: this way buildings will be able to be adapted to new functions when required, extending their lifetime.
  • The point of view of the demolition side should influence, manage and steer regulative actions for construction design rules. This should be also a topic for the design of rules and principles of construction products.

CHALLENGES:

Nowadays, although it is generally known and accepted that construction activities must change to achieve a circular economy, there still exist some big challenges to overcome.

The most challenging and important ones are the following described:

  • Market development:

The demand for circular construction projects still relies heavily on public tenders, because they are often even more expensive than linear construction approaches.  The innovative nature and limited supply of circular construction solutions result in higher investment costs.

On this matter, promoting local recycling channels that make reuse economically feasible is necessary.

For example, to establish channels that put in contact those agents who are carrying out demolition work with other agents in the area who, parallelly in time, are carrying out new construction or renovation work, so that materials from the first work can be directly reused in the second.

This will make reuse much cheaper and simpler, eliminating storage costs and the uncertainty of what will happen to the recovered materials if they are conditioned and stored.

  • Measurement methods:

If the added value of circular construction for the environment, health, comfort, safety, and operating costs can be demonstrated, the demand for circular construction will increase.

  • Knowledge:

For the development of the market and to create standardized measurement methods it is necessary to build up knowledge in all parts of the chain. A building must be designed circularly, but it also must be constructed circular and used and demolish circular.

  • Policy:

Circular construction only becomes interesting when the added value is measured and acknowledged. It is also indispensable the existence of regulation to ban the landfill and monitoring its enforcement to avoid other cheaper but less sustainable options.

Government policy can contribute to this in several ways:

  • Acting as a launching customer and directing the development of measurement methods and knowledge in the chain. Prescribe in procurement docs a minimum % of secondary material into products and buildings.
  • Simplifying bureaucratic processes for this type of projects and allowing experimental projects with more flexibility regarding the observance of the regulations.
  • Creating the legal and technical framework for reuse and recycling that assure customers of the good quality of these secondary products.
  • Introducing financial incentives to make participating in the circular economy more attractive, such as making secondary material free from VAT to stimulate customers to apply, or moving taxation from labour to raw material to stimulate the circular economy (see the ex’tax movement: https://ex-tax.com/).

Definitely, the government is an essential party in the development of circular economy in construction including demolition.

  • End-user/customer:

The current trend is to rely more on raw materials than on secondary raw materials. How can the good quality and standard compliance of these materials be guaranteed? There is certainly still work to be done on this subject at the European level.

  • The volume of waste generated:

Sometimes the volume of some type of materials is so small that economically is not worth separating it in order to allow its recycling or reuse.

To solve this problem work should be done on the development of new products and equipment: develop new tools to enable separation on-site (e.g., metal scrap from the sandwich panel), as well as design new materials that are easily recyclable or reusable.

  • The role of producers:

 EPR (European Producer Responsibility) is also relevant in stimulating circular demolition. Producers should take also into account the costs of demolition and circular application of that (secondary) material they once produced (like the WEEE directive).

  • Development of (circular) business cases on the material level.

Financial-economic information is urged to show the consequences of the application of materials from demolition sites. E.g., for concrete is that rather simple compared to plasterboard.

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