THE SECOND LIFE OF THE CONSTRUCTION WASTE

Even though the European Week for the Reduction of Waste ended some days ago, our green soul still has something to tell you about this topic.

After suggesting you 12 good habits to reduce waste and letting you know about the possibility to clean the rivers up, we want now to get your attention about the REUSE. Nowadays, a lot of materials are recycled, among which plastic, rubber, glass, wood, old bituminous membranes, textile fibers, paper, cardboard and many others. 

But have you ever wondered where the waste coming from the demolition of buildings and constructions go and whether it is possible to recycle them somehow?

Well...today we want to tell you about the reuse of building materials!

There are a lot of materials that, once they have reached the end of their life cycle, are taken for recycling and reuse! We are not talking about the “classic” paper, glass and plastic that are part of our everyday life and normal differentiation. 

No, this time we want to enter the soul of the buildings!

In Italy, about a third of the produced waste comes from the building sector. And yes, they are quite bulky ones! But don’t be scared. Recycling and reusing them for new constructions has become a concrete possibility!

Current research focuses on developing innovative and effective solutions.

The main focus are the new strategies aimed at recycling materials coming from demolition activities and repurposing them in the building sector itself, avoiding the need to dispose of the waste in other ways, for example in dumps. 

Although the dumps are the least sustainable choice, they are the most common one. The recovery of building waste is still not widespread in Italy and it is not rooted so as to become a social practice. 

The disposal and the recycling of construction materials remain a pressing problem. The Italian regulation sets a precise quantity of material that can be recycled, the origin of the recyclable waste, their characteristics and the way in which the waste can become new resources. The final phase of the materials recycling involves a series of different treatments, depending on their type and origin, in order to make them suitable to be recycled and reused. 

Good results could be achieved from the beginning of the recovery chain if the waste was homogeneous, that is if they were separated in homogeneous fractions in order to recycle the materials themselves. Which can be reached only through an approach based on a selective demolition, as said. This way, the material could be reused in the building sector itself and there would be a reduction in costs and difficulties in the following phases of recycling. 

Despite the help given to construction and demolition waste management by the UE Protocol (Ref. Ares 2016, 6914779 - 12/12/2016) which puts at disposal a guide to handle the demolitions in a selective way, this is not an easy request for the construction industry, since the demolition waste is always very uneven. 

A 2017 report by Legambiente showed the use of recycled materials, aiming at bringing at light the changes produced by the use of recycling materials also in the building sector, under the push of the CE Directive 2008/98.

When constructing a building, three factors need to be considered: materials, energy, water. Another thing that needs to be considered is that the usage and wear processes of these materials (in the extraction, processing, transport, construction, elimination phases) cause environmental damage like the global warming, the pollution, the reduction of natural resources, the generation of waste and, last but not least, health problems. 

With the increased global awareness about environmental issues, technological development is leaning towards efficient processes which guarantee excellent results in terms of materials performances and which would mean a substantial saving in terms of energy. 

Nowadays there are a lot of exemples about buildings made of waste materials that have become new products.

In Italy, the Juventus Stadium, opened in Turin in 2011, is a true example of a “recycled” building. In its realization, a lot of materials were recovered from the dismantling of the previous “Delle Alpi” Stadium: 40.000 cubic meters of concrete, that have been crushed and used as the basis, 5.000 tons of reprocessed steel, 2.000 square meters of glass, 300 tons of aluminium. Furthermore, a lot of energy saving solutions have been used, like renewable energy sources and water waste reduction. A full-fledged green stadium!

And what about the housing complex Casanova EA8 in Bolzano, made of 85 residential units divided into three compact blocks? The 20% of the material that has been used comes from reuse!

Also in Europe, the sustainable systems adopted for the disposal and recycling of construction waste is becoming an increasingly frequent practice which promotes sustainability and reduces the environmental impact of the buildings. 

For example, the REBRICK technology, designed and patented by the danish company Gamle Mursten, aims at handling the construction waste in an efficient way and is based on an automatic cleaning of concrete and cement from the old bricks. In this way, they can be used for building activities, instead of being rounded inside of mixed aggregates.

Overseas, the Big Dig House in Lexington, Massachusetts, can be considered an excellent example of ecological building, being designed and built with recycled material in each section. The building is the result of a high design project which represents perfectly its vocation to the reuse and renewal of waste materials. Can you believe that its cement and steel soul is made of the waste coming from the dismantling of a highway?!

This will come with no shock: the objective is to make the building ecosystem able to realize a sustainable renewal, based not only on alternative solutions and on the use and reuse of recycled materials, but also on the integration of nature-based solutions. 

The building sector is crucial in Italy’s zero emissions and sustainable future and we hope that the ways in which we build and live can change for the better, avoiding waste and recycling when it is possible. 

We are now used to seeing clothes, jewelry, utensils and furniture designed from waste materials. But, if this is common in the design sector, in the building one there is still a long way to go. Although there is no lack of ideas and projects, the construction sector is a very polluting and problematic one, so there is the need of precise and strict regulations in order to guarantee the security and resilience of the buildings. This is why the recovery and reuse of construction waste keeps struggling to establish itself as a real possibility.

What do you think about this? Do you think that the future of this industry may include the reuse of waste material for the well-being of citizens, landscape and environment protection?

Stay tuned, we have much more in store for your curiosity!

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