Reduced ecological footprint: Reduced CO2 emissions from new materials, logistics, waste and energy. 

Better waste management: Improved material flows and easier tracking of materials location. For instance,  CIRCUIT studied the material flows in the city and adopted a guide on how to source reclaimed material [9]. 

Reduced natural resource depletion: Lower use of virgin/raw materials. When recycling, fewer virgin materials are used. In BAMB, this result was enabled by the use of material passports. 

Promote the materials cycle: Material passports and new business models such as buy-back increase material recycling. Material passports were used in BAMB, e.g., in a new office building and in student home renovations. The buy-back concept is still in early phase. 

Reduced waste: Less waste, since materials are recycled and re-used. In CIRCUIT, a guide to help understand the building life-cycle extension was created [10]. 

Business/technological innovation, Job creation: For new business models and new material and waste management. 

TYPICALLY INTEGRATED WITH:  

Re-using local building waste (e.g. local waste material bank) 

Urban mining model to assess circular construction opportunities and optimize resource use and exchange 

Residual Value Calculator for construction parts/material, consumers products etc. (as part of business model/value chain) 

Online register with building and infrastructure material/parts/products for reuse/circular use 

Circular Life Cycle Cost (C-LCC) : ECO-tool (for deep renovation) 

Pre-conditions 

Technical aspects/infrastructure:  

• Technical knowledge on the correct recovery of materials in end-of-life buildings.  

• Data management of the materials, e.g. through BIM and online registers. Data platforms provide a useful tool, as well as the material bank approach used in BAMB. Similarly, CIRCUIT provided a guide to locate reclaimed materials [10]. 

Policy and legal/regulatory framework:  

End-of-waste legislation: EU [14] and national legislation needs to allow and enable material recycling and reuse in new buildings and renovation projects. Particularly important are National and Regional Waste Management Plans establishing prevention, reutilization, recycling and recovery of C&D waste [HISER] [15]. Guidance and regulation should clearly state what material properties need to be tested before reused materials are employed in new buildings. However, this process should not be too time consuming or costly in order to speed up the recycling of materials. 

Enabling conditions 

Funding and Financing:  

• Securing funding for the set-up of enabling platforms (e.g. Building Information Modelling, material banks) can increase and speed up the process of using waste materials.  

• Incentives for material recovery/recycling and disincentives for waste production [15], e.g. subsides supporting new actors who are creating recycling solutions for construction sites and material logistics and taxes for waste materials or new materials. 

Project governance and implementation modalities: 

• Building owners and investors play an important role, since they set the requirements for renovations or for new buildings. Therefore, awareness campaigns are needed to increase the take-up of the recycling practices in end-of-life buildings and promote materials reuse in renovations or new constructions.  

• Engaging stakeholders in the development of new solutions and approaches is crucial, as it allows to adapt the solution to local needs but also to ensure take-up and circulation of good-practices even after the end of the project. For instance, models involving the use of digital tools and platforms (e.g. BIM, online registers) [FISSAC] [HISER] often require a critical mass of users to be effective. 

Technical aspects/infrastructure [4]:  

• Lack of availability of used materials on local markets results in long-distance transportation, increasing costs and environmental impact significantly. 

• Increased time needed for deconstruction and careful packing of reusable items can cause additional costs and be a disincentive; problems can arise also in relation to expiration of planning permits. 

• Lack of local facilities for material stocks storage would require resorting to long-distance supply of used/recycled materials, increasing transportation costs as well as the environmental footprint, and making the solution less attractive. 

• Health and safety risks of manual deconstruction compared to mechanical demolition techniques  

• Consolidated building methods and technologies can cause challenges in further reuse, e.g. cement mortar used in brick and block construction. 

• Low or negative incentive in reuse of low value/cheap products and materials.  

• Lack of skills, among C&D waste practitioners, on sorting and recovery processes [15]. 

Funding and  financing:  

There are not enough incentives to recover materials from buildings and not produce waste [15], as the costs of producing material waste is still rather low.  The challenge could be addressed through the adoption of appropriate financial and fiscal tools. 

Policy and legal/regulatory framework:  

• EU Waste Framework Directive [15] and related national legislations on end-of-waste criteria (i.e. when waste ceases to be waste and becomes a secondary raw material) [14]. There is a general lack of support in national and regional legislations, as well as lack of standardisation, and restrictions on use of recycled materials [15]. 

• Quality certifications of recycled materials [15]. 

• Time constraints linked to planning permissions expiration [4]. 

Economic and social context:  

Due to lack of knowledge and awareness, there is reluctance to use products without certification of tested performance (especially in terms of structural capacity), which hinders reuse of building materials; submitting the materials to testing would entail additional costs, making it disadvantageous [4]. 

Literature 

[1] Douglas Mulhall, Michael Braungart & Katja Hansen, Creating buildings with positive impact, Technische Universität München, in association with BAMB, Fakultät für Architektur, 2019. 

[2] 4RinEU, deliverable, Guidelines and technology concepts for managing building end of life, D2.7. 

[3] K. Wang, S. Vanassche, A Ribeiro, M. Peters, J. Oseyran, Business models for building material circularity: learnings from frontrunner cases, International HISER Conference on Advances in Recycling and Management of Construction and Demolition Waste, 21-23 June 2017, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. 

[4] Gilli Hobbs, Katherine Adams BRE, Watford, United Kingdom, Reuse of building products and materials – barriers and opportunities, International HISER Conference on Advances in Recycling and Management of Construction and Demolition Waste, 21-23 June 2017, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. 

[5] Chini R., A. Deconstruction and Materials Reuse: Technology, Economic, and Policy CIB Publication 266.  

[6] BAMB Project deliverable: D1 Synthesis of the state-ofthe-art, Key barriers and opportunities for Materials Passports and Reversible Building Design in the current system, November2016. 

[7] K. Wang, , S. Vanassche,, A Ribeiro, M. Peters, J. Oseyran, International HISER Conference on Advances in Recycling and Management of Construction and Demolition Waste, 21-23 June 2017, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands, Business models for building material circularity: learnings from frontrunner cases. 

[8] 4RinEU, Reliable models for deep renovation, D4.2 WP4, Cost-effectiveness rating system.   

[9] ReLondon, Sourcing reclaimed construction materials 

[10] CIRCUIT deliverable D5.1 How to identify buildings for life-cycle extension? Guide for case selection via the mapping of transformable neighbourhoods and buildings   

[11] BAMB, New Office Building, Case studies and pilots in BAMB 

[12] BAMB, Build Reversible In Conception (B.R.I.C.), An educational transformable wooden building  

[13] HISER, e-brochure, technological solutions 

[14] HISER, Report on Policy Recommendations, D6.1, Deliverable.[15] EU Waste Framework Directive 

Trainings, e.g. solutions, best practice. 

Awareness campaigns e.g. webinars on best practices, available funding. 

Public procurement rules to favour reuse and recycling and penalising waste generation. 

Fees/incentives for using recycled materials and low waste generation. There could be e.g. limit values how much waste can be generated or how much recycled materials is needed to use 

Decarbonisation plans for industry, setting targets for reuse of materials, waste source segregation, as well as for reduction of the waste amounts can help reduce CO2 emission caused by e.g., material production and logistics. 

Material passports provide the information on materials and potential options for its reuse. In addition, material passports can include information about the residual value.  

Building renovation passports could give information about the share of recycled materials or waste generated compared to similar buildings. This would increase owners and tenants awareness. 

Examples