The EU’s construction sector accounts for 35% of total waste production and significantly contributes to CO2 emissions and raw materials consumption. Despite the great potential of material salvage and reuse, many building elements end up recycled or disposed. Drawing on the Interreg North-West Europe FCRBE project, Michael Ghyoot will present the tools that have enabled the reuse of over 2000t of construction elements and illustrate how regions can move towards circular construction models.
- Territorial | INTERREG | EU/ European | Climate and environment | Sustainable | Cohesion | Industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs (enterprise/ startup/ business) | Circular economy
- Code: 08TK241550
- Albert Borschette Conference Centre, AB-4D
Speaker
Practical information
- When
-
Tue 08/10/2024, 09:30 - 09:45 CET
- Where
- Albert Borschette Conference Centre, AB-4D
- Type of partnership
- Partnership
- Format
- EURegionsTalks / Living Library/Pecha Kucha
- Theme
-
Smart and sustainable growth for regions
- Language
- English
Partner
Reporting
Session summary
Construction and Demolition waste in the EU reaches 385 Mt. In North-West Europe, only 1% of building elements are reused following their first application. Although a large number of elements are technically reusable, they end up being recycled by crushing or melting, or disposed. The result is a high environmental impact and a net loss of economic value.
FCRBE project investigated how to how to increase salvage and reuse. Partners focused on identifying reusable materials prior to any demolition works. They also shed light on existing actors, in fact more than 1000 SME specialised in salvage were documented in online directories. They also worked on facilitating reuse for building professionals and that resulted in a catalogue of technical sheets for commonly salvaged materials.
Finally several pilots were set to put principles and in action: FCRBE pilot operations made it possible to reuse more than 2050 tonnes of materials
