30 World Green Building Council: EU Policy Whole Life Carbon Roadmap EU POLICY ROADMAP: WASTE AND CIRCULARITY The buildings sector is responsible for a third of Europe’s waste and half of its extracted materials. 60 The waste generated includes leftover construction materials, remnants of demolished buildings, packaging and other debris. EU policy must do more to tackle this environmental impact. Central to this will be developing policies that enforce and encourage greater circularity and increased resource efficiency. The end goal of such policies will be to design waste out of the construction value chain and end the sector’s reliance on finite resources. The first step is for these policies to enable and catalyse a major increase in the reuse of construction products and materials, with high-quality recycling of construction and demolition waste. Optimised building material standards and legislation for how to deal with materials on site and at end of life will also be required. These policies must be supported by measures that stimulate market demand so that reusable and secondary materials are accepted. Conveniently located and adequate reuse and recycling facilities (including required technologies) will be essential. Box 1: Circularity in the Level(s) framework The Level(s) framework provides guidance for putting circularity into practice under objective 2 (efficient and circular material life cycles), under which four indicator areas assess the most important opportunities for improving resource efficiency and circularity: 2.1 Bill of quantities, materials and lifespans 2.2 Construction and demolition waste and materials 2.3 Design for adaptability and renovation 2.4 Design for deconstruction, reuse and recycling The above indicators use existing practices and standards/metrics. They should be considered a useful and substantive basis for promoting practices and setting targets under these policy routes. Overarching circularity indicators are also now being standardised by ISO, with a construction sector framework and indicators under development. See Level(s) section on page 15. Regulatory tools to address circularity Circularity is a cross-cutting issue in the building value chain. It can be integrated into the following EU policy instruments: The EPBD and the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) (see Section 1 and the annex, respectively) can set requirements on circularity performance (information on proper dismantling, reusability, recyclability, recycled content and in-use requirements) at both the building and product level. The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) deals with prioritising and applying waste prevention and treatment measures to increase the efficiency of resource use (including setting end-of-waste criteria for materials). The EU Public Procurement Directive and relevant Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria can also require circularity requirements to be included to specify higher reuse of materials, minimum recycled content and the design approaches to be followed. However, this is highly reliant on the integration of product and building design standards. Circularity in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Integrating circularity requirements into the EPBD will help address building WLC, drive circularity and deliver on the goals of the CEAP. The EPBD should be used to help Member States and regional authorities set and implement circularity requirements. Introducing such requirements will help increase the share of circular products in construction projects and the reuse of in-situ building elements. A first step could be to propose that Member States set ambitious, specific and separate measurable national targets for reuse and recycling by 2030. Corresponding guidance for Member States should include recommendations for national targets based on commitments to double the circular material use rate by 2030 under the CEAP. Guidance should recommend that national targets include separate targets for secondary and recycled materials, with the targets integrated into national building renovation plans to reflect the EU’s long-term vision on circularity. The EU’s updated New Industrial Strategy prioritises digitalisation under the Construction Sector Transition Pathway to allow the storage of essential data about products and buildings, thus making their reuse and circularity more feasible. 60 RICS (2021), Is Europe ready for the circular economy?.
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