4. Looking outside the Nordics

In the EU, construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for more than a third of all waste generated

European Commission. 2022. Construction and demolition waste fact sheet. Available: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/waste-and-recycling/construction-and-demolition-waste_en

. Under the Waste Framework Directive, construction and demolition waste is a priority waste stream. The objective is to promote selective demolition to enable removal and safe handling of hazardous substances and facilitate re-use and high-quality recycling by selective removal of materials and establishing sorting systems, as well as to reduce waste generation. The recycling and material recovery rate target is set at 70 percent. About 450–500 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste are generated annually in the EU. This figure contains all the waste produced by the construction and demolition of buildings and infrastructure, as well as road maintenance, but exclude excavation material. Technology for separation and recovery of construction and demolition waste is well established, readily accessible and generally inexpensive, but recycling and recovery rates vary between countries. Even if definitions and reporting routines vary and can explain for some of the differences, it is a fact that some countries perform better when it comes to recycling.

Current available data is in some areas lacking but do provide some insights to why the data varies

Monier, V. et al. 2011. Study on the management of construction and demolition waste in the EU. Report for the European Commission.

. The quantities of CDW generated is highly dependent on the rate of new constructions built and/or replacing old buildings and therefor reflects the economic growth of the country. Also, architectural habits and types of materials used in construction shows great regional variation, e.g., in some regions brick is the main construction material, whereas in others concrete represents the majority. Wood is a major construction material in northern countries like Finland, Norway and Sweden. Culture does also play a part, and for example in regions in France is demolition seen as a failure, whereas it is regarded in a more positive way in other countries, and the overall technical issues of for example the age of built environment and the quality of the materials used in the old construction influences the rate of demolition. However, an accurate analysis of geographical variations would require more reliable data over time, which is not the case with the current reporting system.

Material recovery rates vary greatly between countries, from some 10 percent to 90 percent, with the Nordic countries somewhere in the middle. Even though there are different definitions and methods to reporting CDW, this shows that is possible to achieve a high rate of recycling and recovery in the sector.

This chapter will look on some initiatives and methods used in Europe of how construction waste streams are handled at facilities and describe how these can be implemented on the Nordic market, as to give inspiration and recommendations for new initiatives that could be introduced in the Nordics.

In order to find good examples on techniques and policy that could be implemented in the Nordics to improve the recycling and reuse of construction waste, focus was on high performing European countries. It was decided to focus on Europe, mainly due to available data and due to a similar policy landscape, which helps implementing the ideas in the Nordics.

According to Eurostat-data in Figure 17, the recycling and material recovery rate of CDW is at 88 % (2018). The indicator is the ratio of construction and demolition waste, which is prepared for re-use, recycled or subject to material recovery, including through backfilling operations, divided by the construction and demolition waste treated as defined in Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics. The indicator covers the waste category 'Mineral waste from construction and demolition' (EWC-Stat 12.1). Only non-hazardous waste is considered. Studies find that most of the recovery is low-value material recovery, such as backfilling operations

Schimek et al. 2023. Critical review of the recovery rates of construction and demolition waste in the European Union – An analysis of influencing factors in selected EU countries. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X23003616

. As CDW is a major waste stream in many European countries, by comparing the figures for CDW and statistics showing overall circular material use rate in Figure 18, countries like the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and the UK perform well

CBS Statistics Netherlands. 2019. Construction section leading in waste and recycling. Available: https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2019/45/construction-sector-leading-in-waste-and-recycling

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Bilsen, V. et al. 2018. Development and implementation of initiatives fostering investment and innovation in construction and demolition waste recycling infrastructure. Available: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2020-12/CDW%20infrastructure%20study_0.pdf

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For the countries reporting high recycling rates, several commonalities exist. The first and perhaps most important thing is legislation and policy that both drives the construction sector towards circular economy and facilitates and enable for circular economy. When the legislative policy tools are in place, the technology and market follow. The key to high recycling rates and successful waste prevention, is the availability of suitable businesses, operators and facilities in the region. Long distances with small amounts of materials often makes it unprofitable for recycling and reusing facilities. A third thing the forerunners have in common, is projects and initiatives driving and testing new innovative methods for recycling and reuse in often public-private partnerships. There is an abundance of projects in e.g., data collection and reuse methods that can be seen as now paving way for new policy in these countries.

As Europe moves away from landfill towards recovery of waste, are the targets set on recycling of higher value. Countries performing well usually have higher value recycling for easily recyclable materials, such as metals and clean glass, that preserve their value though recycled, and lower value recycling for the rest of the materials. The biggest waste stream in especially demolition waste is mineral waste. This is often used for backfilling or for covering landfills, which are relatively low value recovery. In high performance countries, almost all the mineral waste is sorted into sub-categories, so e.g., gypsum and asphalt can be recycled into new gypsum products and asphalt road materials. Mixed mineral waste, largely concrete waste is used for road and other ground works, replacing use of virgin materials, such as gravel. Concrete rubble can also be used in making of new concrete, replacing a part of virgin cement and sand. This is not yet done in large scale, as a mainstream activity, but is an example of how techniques are moving from lower value recycling (rubble in ground works) to higher value recycling (old concrete to new concrete). When making recycled concrete, only a part of the input (around 30 %, depending on technique and quality needs) can be replaced with recycled concrete, and therefore recycled concrete cannot completely solve the pressure on primary material used in concrete production.

Materials usually recycled:

The Alliander headquarters is an office building opened in 2015, consisting of 83 % recycled material

CFP Green Building. 2022. Top circular buildings in the Netherlands. Available: https://cfp.nl/en/news-and-cases/our-top-5-circular-buildings-in-the-netherlands/

. The wood used was reclaimed from a waste processor. The demolition concrete from the old building was turned into a gravel substitute that went into the new concrete for the building. The ceiling tiles are largely reused, and the lamps refurbished from old transformers. The insulation of the building is made from recycled materials and textiles. The building is one example displaying that it is possible to build with recycled materials.  

Concrete is the largest structural material in terms of volume. At the End-of-Life phase, concrete is mainly landfilled, backfilled or recycled into road-based aggregate (RBA), quite often in a mix with other mineral waste materials such as bricks and tiles. Recycling concrete into RBA has important advantages: steel rebars are recovered, crushed concrete is reused in a suitable application and transport of bulk materials (energy, dust) is minimal. Road and other infrastructural construction are not a sustainable solution for concrete waste since the building of new roads needs less and less material while the volumes of EOL concrete are rising.

Different techniques for large scale concrete recycling are being developed, where EOL concrete is crushed and turned into aggregates for new concrete and a fine cement paste concentrate for making new low-CO₂ cementitious binders. One company doing this is Sika, with a concrete recycling process plant in Zurich

Sika n.a. Can concrete be recycled. Available at: https://www.sika.com/en/knowledge-hub/can-concrete-be-recycled.html

. Skanska in the Czech Republic has started producing concrete that uses recycled concrete and/or masonry to completely replace natural aggregates

Parsi, N. 2022. Mixed-use development outside Prague uses a material made from leftover bricks. Available at: https://www.bdcnetwork.com/mixed-use-development-outside-prague-uses-material-made-leftover-bricks, Skanska 2019. Making better mixes. Available at: https://group.skanska.com/media/articles/creating-better-mixes-low-carbon-and-circular-concrete/

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In Central Europe, especially Germany, wood waste is used to produce wood-based particleboards or chipboards. In North America, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, wood waste is used in, e.g., the manufacture of wood panels and as floorboards, external cladding boards, and loading pallets. Furthermore, untreated or clean wood waste is also used as mulch and a base material for, e.g., animal shelters, playgrounds, and footpaths

FIR. Undated. Technical Factsheets Construction & Demolition Waste Recycled Aggregates (example The Netherlands). https://www.fir-recycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FIR-Factsheet-on-Recycled-Aggregates-Example-The-Netherlands.pdf

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In Europe, around two-thirds of PVC produced is used in building applications such as PVC window frames and other profile applications, pipes and fittings, flooring, electric cables and conduits, a variety of plastic linings, membranes and water­proofing applications, and in coated fabrics

Vinylplus 2017. PVC recycling technologies. Available at: https://vinylplus.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/VinylPlus_PVC_recycling_tech_20092017.pdf

. PVC can be recycled several times, but a problem with old PVC. These substances should not be recycled but can be destroyed through incineration with energy recovery. Conventional mechanical recycling covers processes which do not break polymer chains into small components. It is well suited to pre-sorted, single waste-stream waste, and has been done in Europe for decades.

Despite its recyclability, end-of-life building glass is almost never recycled into new glass products. Instead, it is very often crushed together with the other building materials and put into landfills or recovered together with other CDW. This is facilitated by its inert characteristics. It currently has a low market value because there is a lack of properly organised collection and recycling systems to generate what would be a valuable glass-making raw material. Glass recyclers biggest limitations is not technique but receiving enough feedstock

Devlin, K. 2022. Flat glass recycling. Available at: https://www.glassmagazine.com/article/flat-glass-recycling

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Flat glass can be recycled into flat glass or to fiberglass, insulation or highway beads. Laminated glass, such as insulation glass must be additionally processed, but can even so be recycled.

Reusing building elements and materials in construction, results in higher preserved value of materials, and at the same time waste reduced. All kinds of material can be reused in different phases in both construction and demolishing. In construction project, leftover products and materials can be sold for reuse, and reused items and materials can be used in construction. In demolition projects, the process is usually that the project is mapped for what material is available, and the demolishing starts with dismantling all the materials and products that can be reused as is. These can be e.g., doors and windows, all kinds of interior, panels, bricks, beams, and even whole elements and buildings.

The reusing of building elements from demolished buildings however faces certain challenges. Construction products must fulfil certain technical requirements. The eligibility of a construction product is generally indicated by the CE mark inside European Union if the construction product falls within the scope of the harmonized product standard or has a European technical assessment (ETA). CE mark is generally applicable for new construction products, not for the reused construction products. Currently the reuse of building elements has certain approval practices which have some variation between Nordic Countries. Especially the quality control and quality verification of reused construction elements lack of unified guidance and the applicability of reusable construction elements are typically evaluated case by case.

Materials usually reused:

UK is one example country where the markets for reusing and reclaiming of construction materials are evolving and growing. Especially traditional materials such as bricks, certain wood construction products and fittings have moderate markets run by SME’s. Various digital marketplaces for retailers with physical storage locations and online exchange platforms for ad-hoc listings informing upcoming buildings to be demolished. One of the biggest market players in the field is Salvo which runs digital marketplace SalvoWEB

Salvo. 2023.  About futuREuse. FRCBE Interreg NEW project. Available: https://futureuse.co.uk/about/

. Salvo is the original marketplace started in 1991 for architectural salvage and reclaimed building materials such as bricks, stone, beams, timber, roof tiles and slates, flooring, windows, doors and sanitary ware

ReLondon. 2021. Sourcing reclaimed construction materials. CIRCuIT EU Horizon project. Available: https://relondon.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ReLondon-Sourcing-reclaimed-construction-materials-May-2021.pdf

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Grosvenor is a British property group working globally. The family-owned company is a prominent in the property market in environmental, low-carbon and circular initiative

Grosvenor. 2023. Website: https://www.grosvenor.com/materialreuse

. Grosvenor’s UK property business is working to reduce the carbon of projects through circular design strategies, and material reuse is key. An example of material reuse is the Holbein Gardens project, where structural steel from the demolition of an office building was used directly in the construction of the new building, preserving the value of the structural steel and saving almost 70kg/CO²e/m³.

The project was done in cooperation with Cleveland Steel, which is a steel stock company specialized in reclaimed and reused steel. Cleveland Steel also delivered reused steel tube from an existing surplus to be used in the London Olympic Stadia

Cleveland Steel. 2023. Website: https://cleveland-steel.com/case-study/london-olympic-stadia

. Being involved early in the project, the design could be configured to use the already existing pipes, enabling the stadium to be completed in time and significantly reducing the carbon footprint of the project.

The Community Wood Recycling (CWR) is a network of 30 enterprises across the UK recycling and reusing wood

Community Wood Recycling. 2023. Website: https://communitywoodrecycling.org.uk/

. The enterprises sell timber that has been rescued from construction projects. The wood waste from construction and demolition sites is stocked and then sold by local enterprises for reuse or recycled or upcycled into new products. CWR started in 2003 and estimates that it since then has reclaimed almost 223 000 tonnes of wood.

Reducing waste is the first step in the waste hierarchy. In order to reduce construction and demolition there are several areas to focus on: the prerequisites for the company, choice of material and building design, construction methods, logistics and material management and procurement, for example

Fredriksson, G. & Höglund, E. 2012. Att minska byggavfallet – En metod för att förebygga avfall vid byggande. Tyréns, Stockholm.

. These will affect the generation of waste during construction as well during the life and end of life phase. The design and quality of materials and methods are the key factor in whether the building can be renovated or refurbished instead of demolished, disassembled for reuse, as well as for possibilities for reuse and recycle before and during demolishing, all of which are methods for reducing waste.

The most effective way to prevent waste is to prevent demolition, by designing modular buildings and design for disassembly. This is though possible mainly for new buildings. For existing buildings, refurbishing and renovating instead of demolition usually generates less waste. The first step when demolishing should be to map, assess and dismantle all materials that can be reused, to reduce the amount of waste generated. During construction, logistics play an important part in prevention of waste.

The construction company Volker Wessels started a logistical hub for building projects, Bouwhub, at the edge of Utrecht city back in 2015

Interreg Europe. 2022. Good practices – Bouwhub smart building logistics. Available: https://www.interregeurope.eu/good-practices/bouwhub-smart-building-logistics

. The hub takes in materials in for the outfitting phase, for example tiling, pipe fittings, drywall, for several projects and repackages the materials to fit the daily needs for each of the projects in the area. The first years, the hub was underutilized, but turned into a profitable service in 2018. The hub lowers the traffic into the city by collating deliveries to hub and provided every sub-contractor with necessary materials in site. Every round of deliveries leads to the possibility of to get rid of waste and the possibility to collect materials for reuse. The hub stores building materials, tools and other materials like fence and security materials. The area was created in collaboration with local policy makers, as it requires a suitable area and space, as well as help to get started.

Due to planning and logistics, the hub has reported a reduction of waste by 30 % since it started, and a reduction of traffic into the city by 60 %. Reusing of packaging material in the hub is 50 %, which is above average in the sector, and report that 15 % of materials recovered is reused.

A similar hub was established temporarily for the construction of Barts Hospital in London in 2004 by the construction company Skanska

Fredriksson, G. & Höglund, E. 2012. Att minska byggavfallet – En metod för att förebygga avfall vid byggande. Tyréns, Stockholm

. The logistics centre was situated outside the construction site, which allowed for smoother collated deliveries and better space for loading and unloading. This led to less damaged goods and leftover material, resulting in less waste.

As an EU member state, the Dutch policy follows the EU legislation in the form of a policy programme ‘From Waste to Raw Material’ (Van Afval Naar Grondstof - VANG) that promotes the transition to a circular economy. The Netherlands implementation programme encourages voluntary ‘Green Deals’ as an instrument to ensure bottom-up initiatives from stakeholders. Green Deals exists for e.g., sustainable concrete, circular building and bio-based buildings. In the Netherlands, there is an obligation to provide information about the environmental performance of building materials that are covered by the Buildings Decree. In the environmental performance of building materials, the emphasis lies on the climatic effects, but there is no requirement in the Buildings Decree concerning the degree of circularity. The Soil Quality Decree allows since 2007 for recycling of CDW mineral material in construction projects without environmental impact reporting or permits, which allows for high recycling rates. The role that the Netherlands has as the frontrunner in the recycling of building materials is, to an important degree, a result of these regulations.

Rijkswaterstaat. 2015. Circular Economy in the Dutch construction sector Available: https://www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/2016-0024.pdf

The construction sector uses large volumes of material and generates large volumes of waste, some 40 percent of total produced waste

Circular Gap Report 2022: Built Environment, The Netherlands. Available: https://www.circle-economy.com/resources/circularity-gap-report-built-environment-the-netherlands

. The waste is largely recycled (88%) and less than 10 % end up in landfill. Almost 38 percent of all the materials used by the Dutch construction sector were recycled materials. However, only 8 percent of the material used for buildings is from recycled material. The demolition waste is sorted and treated on a large scale, most of the recycled demolition waste is used as a foundation material for infrastructure (e.g., ground works and road construction). 

The processing of good quality recycled materials starts before demolition. The Dutch National Building Decree and Soil quality decree require that during demolition and recycling, the material may not cause negative effect for health or environment. The regular process for demolition waste is described in Figure 19 and consists of crushing with sieves and magnets. This is combined with new techniques that efficiently widen the range of recycled materials. Examples include screening techniques, washing techniques, optical or infrared sorting, thermal processing of asphalt and new technologies that offer opportunities to bring back the original source materials.

FIR. Undated. Technical Factsheets Construction & Demolition Waste Recycled Aggregates (example The Netherlands). https://www.fir-recycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/FIR-Factsheet-on-Recycled-Aggregates-Example-The-Netherlands.pdf

As most of the CDW is demolition waste, recycling begins before the dismantling. In the Netherlands, material passports for buildings have been tested and used for several years

Madaster. 2019. Amsterdam metropolitan area uses material passports to boost the circular economy in the region. Available: https://madaster.com/inspiration/amsterdam-metropolitan-area-uses-material-passports-to-boost-the-circular-economy-in-the-region/

. Materials passports are digital documents containing information on all the parts of a building. These are becoming more and more frequent, and the possibility for them to become mandatory for new buildings is being discussed across Europe. In the Netherlands, where the idea is arguably most used and advanced, the Dutch government has introduced tax incentives for developers who register material passports

Barnard, L. 2022. How are material passports changing construction. Construction Europe. Available: https://www.construction-europe.com/news/how-are-materials-passports-changing-construction-/8020985.article

.The passport provides insight into what materials products and components go into a building, typically in the form of digital data sets, making it easier at the end of the building’s life to recover everything of value, preventing these materials from being incinerated during demolition or renovation

Metabolic. 2020. Materials passport for a circular economy. Available: https://www.metabolic.nl/news/circular-economy-materials-passports/

. Typically, material passports and done for new buildings, since during planning and building it is easier to keep records, but it can also be done for existing buildings. These are usually not as specific but can be used to describe the materials on a larger scale. The information in material passports makes it easier to assess what materials can be used for reuse and recycling when renovating or demolishing. The challenge with material passports today is the lack of unified approach and standards, and the fact that a detailed passport can mainly be done for new buildings, when it is the older ones that are demolished.

The Madaster material passport, launched in 2017, is a widely used tool for material passports

Madaster. Website: https://madaster.com/ 

. It started as a prototype in an EU-sponsored Buildings as Materials Banks (BAMB) programme which started in 2015, with the idea to make it easier for construction firms to incorporate as many materials as possible from old buildings rather than buying new ones. The Madaster material passport is a database that stores information about the identity of a building, object or work of art and their underlying materials, with the aim of stimulating the careful use of resources so that waste and wastage is reduced. The Madaster company, founded in the Netherlands, runs the public platform for the entire real estate sector.

Madaster has been used for several building projects in the Netherlands and public buildings in Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

Madaster. 2019. Amsterdam metropolitan area uses material passports to boost the circular economy in the region. Available: https://madaster.com/inspiration/amsterdam-metropolitan-area-uses-material-passports-to-boost-the-circular-economy-in-the-region/

, as well for the 1 Broadgate campus area in the City of London

Considerate Constructors Scheme. 2022. Materials Passport - 1 Broadgate. Available:  https://ccsbestpractice.org.uk/

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The construction sector stands for 70% of all the waste produced in France. Of the CDW, 49% comes from demolition, 38% from renovation and refurbishing and 13% from new construction

Diemer, A. et al. 2022. Waste Management and Circular Economy in the French Building and Construction Sector. Front. Sustain. 3:840091. doi: 10.3389/frsus.2022.840091. Available: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsus.2022.840091/full

. Approximately 70 % is recycled.

The recycling rate in France in driven by policy. French legislation has been a forerunner in Europe, setting the tune for the EU. In the Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth from 2015, recovery targets for construction waste, as well as targets for used recycling materials in construction were set:

The Environmental Code (Article L.541) ensures traceability of the CDW, defining the project owner as the responsible for the waste and its traceability from the construction site until its final disposal or recovery. Each actor in the waste management chain remains responsible for the traceability obligations.

The Law on Anti-waste and Circular Economy (AGEC Law) issued in 2021, allows materials or products to be removed from their waste status under the guise of being useful, reused or recovered. It also facilitates the removal of excavated soil from waste status, as environmental permits no longer are necessary for material that are safe for reuse. The AGEC law also introduces EPR for construction products or materials in the building sector. What can be seen as the predecessor of the AGEC Law, the National Waste Prevention Programme for the period 2014-2020 resulted in a reduction of 7 % of waste in 2020 compared to 2010. The targets for and estimations of the effects of the AGEC Law are a reduction of 5 % of waste from the building and public works sector, in 2030 compared to 2010 (AGEC, Article 3)

European Environment Agency. 2023. Waste Prevention Country Profile – France. Available: https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/waste/waste-prevention/countries

. The Anti-waste Law is a forerunner in banning unnecessary waste and putting circular economy and waste prevention measures activities into law. Waste prevention methods that are listed specifically for the construction sector is to “develop the reuse of products and materials in the building sector and set up a territorial network of collection points with areas dedicated to the reuse of construction products and materials from this sector”. It can be expected that other countries will follow with similar policy, and for example in the UK the Environmental Act 2021 and Waste Prevention Programme are also targeting the construction sector with e.g., EPR schemes and regulations on minimising waste, designing for adaptability, reusing components and materials, recycling and improving demolition systems, with the overall aim to eliminate avoidable waste by 2050.