EK published a report at the end of October Fire from the circular economy! Together, catch up on growth. The report contains a comprehensive package of information on the circular economy, as well as reports from nearly thirty companies on the opportunities offered by the circular economy.
The report highlights the central principles of the circular economy, the most important of which is "one person's waste is another's raw material". As a user of productized waste and by-product streams, the construction sector can present several long-standing and new examples of industrial symbiosis that are both resource- and cost-effective.
According to the report, the central idea of the circular economy is that raw materials and materials remain in use by the economy for a long time, the value of the materials is preserved and the adverse effects on the environment are reduced. The buildings and the building materials used in them are in use for a very long time. Sustainably built buildings and their Frame Structures can serve multiple purposes and different user groups throughout their life cycle.
Building materials – especially mineral-based ones – are ready to be reused either as such or as part of new building materials after light processing when they end up as waste at the end of their life cycle. If desired, mineral materials will never disappear from the technical material cycle.
The promotion of the circular economy can only be successful in a predictable operating environment where official activities and legislative obstacles that slow down or prevent the circular economy have been identified and removed without lowering the level of environmental protection. The report with examples highlights this fact well.
In construction, the circular economy often collides with product approval and waste legislation. Recycling ideas are met with a lot of standards and unclear official practices. When, for example, the bitumen cream accumulated from old roofing felts started to be used as part of the pavement of asphalt roads, the authorities interpreted the bitumen cream grit as waste for a long time. A separate environmental permit was required for each asphalt station so that they could use the gravel.
The status of heavy waste must be removed from waste materials and they should be equated as recycled materials with primary materials. Approval of utilization as a product or as waste must be based on the same criteria and without subsidies that distort competition between materials.
Pekka Vuorinen
Environment and Energy Director
Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries (CFCI)
The author was part of the background group of EK's circular economy report.
Fire from the circular economy! report with company videos can be found on EK's website.
Read also Pekka Vuorinen's blog post published on November 6.11.2015, XNUMX
Construction waste - a threat to the environment or wasted raw material?
A story about the stumbling blocks in bitumen recycling “Born to be recycled”
In Jokka magazine.
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