MATERIAL CIRCULARITY

1.2. RELEVANCE FOR CIRCULAR BUILDINGS The circularity of technical materials is the basis of the circular economy approach: it allows the introduction of all the 9R principles into the building supply chain: in the planning and design phases of the building it is necessary on the one hand to prefer reusable and recycled materials over virgin ones, and on the other hand to design so that at the end of their useful life they in turn can be recovered and put back into circulation. Refurbishment or repurpose may be necessary if entire components are to be reused, instead recycle and recover if they are no longer able to guarantee sufficient performance. 1.3. INNOVATION ASPECTS The circularity of construction materials is currently very limited, with an excessive and no longer sustainable production of construction and demolition waste: the environmental benefit of material circularity is obvious, but the cost of reused materials is usually higher, so the economic advantage of choosing virgin materials prevails. With this in mind, a systematic change of the whole sector is needed, leading to an overall lowering of costs, benefiting all companies involved, except clearly those involved in extraction and disposal of products, i.e. the least sustainable.

2.1. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS - Re-use of materials from the demolition of old buildings with the same or a different function - Use in new buildings of entire components from the dismantling of other buildings (e.g. windows and doors) - Design of materials with a view to recycling, reuse or maximisation of useful life to minimise waste - Production of easily demountable components to facilitate recycling - Use of design techniques such as Design for Disassembly - Compliance with CAM - Use of prefabricated components for which a disassembly and waste management scheme is already established - Attention to compliance with the Waste Framework Directive at European level - Co-operation with other stakeholders in the sector for the circulation of materials - Search for products in reuse markets, at companies that refurbish products or use recycled products as a basis

3.1. BENEFITS - Minimisation of virgin raw materials extracted for new materials - Reduction in the amount of materials that become waste, leading to their abandonment in landfills - More possibilities to achieve building sustainability certifications - Better LCA results on components or the whole building in terms of impact, as well as better scores in circularity indices - Access to incentives and tax breaks - Boost in research for the re-use of materials for new purposes and uses outside the classical one for which they are produced (e.g. use of demolition waste as aggregates) - Maximising the life cycle of materials, as much as possible at their maximum value (closing the loop) 3.2. COMPLEXITIES - Materials and components not always of sufficient quality to guarantee reuse, even with downgrading - High cost of companies dealing with disassembly, separation and re-use, as well as storage and transport of parts - Need for verification of the performance requirements of materials to be reused by specialists - Lack of confidence on the part of buyers with respect to material guarantees, especially in the absence of material certification - Limited diffusion of waste treatment and sorting plants on the territory, with the need for long and expensive transports, which cancel out the benefit of reuse - Easier access to virgin materials than to reuse markets, as well as higher cost of products in these markets - Complex reverse logistics management