Circular Economy

The construction sector, which deals with huge material flows, offers excellent opportunities for promoting the circular economy. At the end of the life cycle of buildings, building materials – especially mineral-based ones – are waste after light processing, ready to be reused either as such or as part of new building materials. In construction, however, the circular economy often collides with product approval and waste legislation. Recycling ideas are met with a lot of standards and unclear official practices.

Stone baskets filled with crushed concrete can be used as a noise barrier and landscape structure instead of natural stone structures. Photo: Rudus

Our goal

Barriers to the circular economy must be dismantled and the use of recycled materials and products must be promoted, especially in public projects, in a technology- and material-neutral manner.
We will set common goals for Finland to increase the use of recycled materials, and increase the utilization of recycled materials in public construction projects.
We will increase the use of recycled materials by making it easier to remove the waste status of materials.
Let's develop solutions for the implementation of the national circular economy program together with the business world and adequately resource them.
Let's shift the focus of taxation from natural resource taxation to waste taxes. Let's control the better circulation of materials and the reduction of the waste load with taxation.
The regulation governing the use of areas will be developed so that the aggregate left over from construction can be used more for primary use.