Why circular economy almost stopped in the XX century for construction and demolition activities?
As it has already been explained in section 2.2, the term ‘circular economy’ is just a new term, as the concept has been used by human beings their whole existence. The only time this concept has been forgotten and seemed to have disappeared has been during the last centuries, since the Industrial Revolution, and when it comes to construction, basically during the XX century.
With the Industrial Revolution, the production processes were industrialized, which permitted manufacturing much more products and selling them at much lower prices than before. This ended up in losing the mentality of reusing everything until it was no way of reusing it again, as it began to be easier to buy completely new products, when necessary, as they were much more accessible and affordable than before.
Regarding the construction activities, during the XX century, this change of mentality, added to the boom of construction, lead to stop circular economy or anything similar to it.
During the whole XX century, the construction sector was growing and growing, and it seemed as it was always going to be rising. Over the years more buildings and civil engineering constructions were constructed.
This led to the creation of multiple construction companies, not only contractors but manufacturers. And due to the worldwide mentality and situation, it was easier and cheaper to manufacture and sell/buy new products for each new construction.
In addition, demolition was not as extended as today. Until the last decades, the general idea was to build in empty spaces, so there weren’t so many unused materials to manage, for reuse or recycling, as today. And the waste generated in the demolitions that were carried out always went to landfills, as almost nobody considers that those wastes could be materials if reused or recycled, instead of wastes.
During all that time the protection of the environment was not a priority for almost nobody, so it seemed as it was all being done well in construction, regarding waste management.
This way, during the XX century linear economy, prevailed in construction activities. Recycle and reuse were unknown terms and activities in this ambit. It has not been until the last few decades, with the increasing of the environmental problems we are facing, when ‘circular economy’ has been introduced in construction activities. And, today, we still have a lot to do in this respect to achieve a real circular economy in construction.
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