Improving the recycling rate of the construction industry

Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) accounts for approximately 25-30% of all waste generated across Europe each year. However, Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC requires from all EU member states to achieve at least 70% re-use, recycling or other recovery of non-hazardous CDW by 2020. In response, the Horizon 2020 RE 4 Project (REuse and REcycling of CDW materials and structures in energy efficient pREfabricated elements for building REfurbishment and construction) consortium was set up. Its main aims are to assess the quality of various CDW fractions (e.g. mineral aggregate, timber, plastics, silt & clay), improve the quality of mineral aggregates and develop different building elements/components which contain at least 65% of CDW. Innovative building concepts will also be developed in an effort to improve recycling rates of future buildings through the use of prefabrication and modular design. The developed products and technologies will be assessed in a number of test sites by building 2-storey demonstration houses.