EU Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol, Guidelines and Business Models

#SDGAction42721

Description

Intro

The European Commission published non-binding guidelines for the construction industry as part of the Circular Economy Package – the EU Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol (2017) and Guidelines for the waste audits before demolition and renovation works of buildings (2018). Existing business models were identified to foster investment and innovation in Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) recycling infrastructure in the Member States. Ultimately, these projects invigorate the drive towards the 70% CDW recycling target by 2020 as prescribed by the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC. This practice is part of the EU building industry’s 2020 strategy and the circular economy package.

Objective of the practice

Construction & Demolition Waste represents a risk for the environment and real challenges for the EU. Every year over 2 tonnes of CDW are generated for each European citizen, i.e. between 500 million and 1 billion tonnes. To turn this mountain of waste into an economic and social opportunity, the European Commission has drawn up several coherent initiatives to improve the management of CDW. 
 
The overarching aim of the practice is to promote a more efficient use of resources, reduce the environmental impact throughout an almost full life cycle, increase confidence in the construction and demolition waste management process and the trust in the quality of recycled materials. 
 
• SDG Target 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalisation and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services. 
• SDG Target 8.4: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead. 
• SDG Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management. 
• SDG Target 12.2: By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources. 
• SDG Target 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimise their adverse impacts on human health and the environment. 
• SDG Target 12.5: By 2050, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

Partners

• Industry practitioners;
• Public authorities at local, regional, national and EU levels;
• Quality certification bodies for building and infrastructure;
• Environmental and citizen NGOs.

Implementation of the Project/Activity

The initiative includes good practices from across the EU that can be sources of inspiration for both policy makers and practitioners. It also includes an overview of definitions and a checklist for practitioners. This initiative has been launched by the European Commission – the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), but the project is built on the active participation and contribution from industry and national government officials according to the tripartite principle of the Construction 2020 initiative. Industry experts have played a major role supported by the feedback, input and guidance from public sector officials. The EC has implemented the process supported by contractors.

The preparation process has been carried out through two Task Forces: Task Force 1 on Quality Recycling, Building Confidence, mostly staffed by a wide range of industry professionals across the EU-28; Task Force 2 on Setting conducive policy and framework conditions, consisting of Member State government representatives (from both national and regional levels), EU level stakeholder organisations and EC officials including those from Directorate-General’s involved (for example DG Environment and DG Research and Innovation).

The overall aim is to increase confidence in the CDW management process and the trust in the quality of CDW recycled materials through:
• Improved waste identification, source separation and collection;
• Improved waste logistics;
• Improved waste processing;
• Quality management;
• Appropriate policy and framework conditions.

The study on "Fostering investment and innovation in construction and demolition waste recycling infrastructure" aims to facilitate the use the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) for funding, as well as other EU funding instruments to encourage individual CDW recycling projects. Interactive consultations with stakeholders were carried out to ensure the viability of the results. There are business cases and recommendations for the planning and design of new CDW recycling facilities, together with proposals to bridge the so-called ‘valley of death’ between entrepreneurs and financial institutions.

Results/Outputs/Impacts

The implementation of the CDW management practice contributes to ensure sustainable management of waste in urban areas. It reduces landfilling and supports higher value opportunities for recovered CDW Materials. It reduces Green House Gases emissions by reducing fossil-fuelled transports. It creates local job opportunities, economic wealth and reduces poverty. Professionalism in CDW managing, processing, recycling, environmental, traceability control and marketing involve highly qualified professionals, which lead to jobs. At the EU28 level, these activities could represent between 50,000 and 100,000. A circular economy from construction through demolition and on to subsequent reconstruction with materials created from the recycled waste is key to leveraging growth in the sector. Considering that 1 tonne of waste is worth approximatively €10, about €7.5 billion could be saved in the EU every year thanks to improved use of recycled CDW materials.

Enabling factors and constraints

CDW recycling often faces obstacles such as the lack of uptake by the markets of recycled materials. This is mainly due to lack of confidence and the EU initiative focus on the three linked aspects: market-confidence-quality.

The following principles have been taken into account for implementing all components of the initiative across the CDW management chain.
• Market-based and promoting competitiveness,
• Ownership by practitioners and acceptance and support from policy makers,
• Transparency and traceability throughout the C&D waste management process,
• Promoting certification and audits throughout the entire process (enforceability),
• “No need to reinvent the wheel”,
• Proximity of location,
• Respecting environmental, health and safety rules and standards,
• Data collection and generation throughout the C&D waste management process.

Sustainability and replicability

Τhe EU initiative with regard to Construction and Demolition Waste Management and the transition towards Circular Economy guide the regulative rollout of CDW management across EU regions; accordingly, the proliferation of infrastructures & methods for recycling and re-use of CDW materials can introduce a green growth opportunity. Member States and Regions can exploit this opportunity by improving their policy instruments to factor these developments in, and support projects and processes to this direction.

Standardisation of quality-assured recycled materials could be the next logical and positive step. In the longer term, the recycling of construction products will be looked at from the start of construction project by "Design for Deconstruction" and use BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology to store information on the materials used to use when the time comes for recycling.

In coherence with the EU Urban Agenda, circular economy in construction should be apprehended at city level. The Commission should encourage systems to manage and trade construction materials supplies and waste treatment at the metropolitan level, enabling effective “urban mining” through e.g. “Buildings as materials bank” (BAMB) principles.

The initiative is replicable everywhere in the world and specifically in the developing countries where the consumption of construction materials is booming according to the urban expansion and, the CDW management is key to ensure social, economic sustainability and resilience of urban areas by reduction of extraction of natural mineral resources and landfilling of waste. Currently, at the worldwide level the recycling rate of CDW is very low whereas it can reach up to 90% in the most advanced areas.

Conclusions

To intensify the impacts of the EU initiative, the management of raw materials and waste in construction should be improved by intensifying the necessary actions for saving non-renewable natural resources and for recovering waste not merely in volume but in value as well. 
 
Achieving the 70% recovery target of the Waste Framework Directive is compulsory, but beyond this objective, the construction value chain should better close the loop by mainstreaming best practices such as: 
• Setting sufficient and specialised construction and demolition waste processing facilities in or close to urban areas, 
• Systematic pre-demolition and renovation work waste audits, 
• Selective demolition and sorting on-site as much as possible, 
• Traceability all along the recovery process from waste removal until reuse or recycling, 
• Fulfilment of construction products standards and quality insurance for secondary materials and products, 
• Health, safety and environmental management of recovery operations with specific attention to hazardous waste management, 
• Public project sponsors and technical prescribers should pay a specific attention to the respect of the principle of non-discrimination with regard the assessment and effective acceptance of secondary materials. 
 
Favourable framework conditions should also facilitate the development of “industrial symbiosis” between industries, urban functionalities and the construction sector (i.e. by-products from industries or urban waste being potential secondary raw materials for construction).

Other sources of information

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/studies/mixed_waste.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/eu-construction-and-demolition-waste…
https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/29203?locale=en
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/construction/support-tools-studies_…
https://ec.europa.eu/docsroom/documents/31021?locale=en

SDGS & Targets