PUT TO GOOD USE

The construction industry generates roughly 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions, according to a House of Commons Committee report. And it is estimated that 60Mt of waste are generated from construction and demolition. Although the Green Construction Board says more than 90% of this waste is recycled, it tends to be crushed to be used as low-value products to fill holes. 

Some recycled materials, such as metals, have become quite valuable as they can be remelted to make new products. As such, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs estimates that more than 90% of metals are recycled. That sounds impressive, but had this product really reached the end of its life?

Many products are taken out of buildings before end of life. The interior sector sees floor coverings, suspended ceilings or partitions being refitted every five to seven years due to a change of tenant or corporate image.

Recycling is better than landfilling or incineration as it retains some of the resource embedded in the product, but there is still a lot of energy going into recycling products that could otherwise be cleaned, repainted and reused.

DID YOU KNOW? 

A potential 8.6Mt of materials could be reused in the UK every year, enough to build 143,000 homes annually. 
Source: Reusefully

One of the main attractions for increasing product reuse in buildings is the potential to reduce embodied carbon emissions.

Over the last decade, there has been growing interest in keeping products at a higher value. The Building As Material Bank project introduced the concept of products as assets rather than liabilities when the building or space needs to be changed. With so many products being taken out of buildings before the end of their useful life, the potential for reusing products is huge.

However, there are also barriers, meaning that reuse is often reduced to being ad hoc. In particular, it is often hard to identify products from donor projects to ensure they go into receiver projects at the right place and time, and in the right quantity and condition. Storage has been identified as a means to support the supply and demand of reused products. Some councils have been setting targets for reuse of products and have created hubs where products can be stored before a new ‘home’ has been identified.

To make reuse happen at scale, it requires genuine collaboration and engagement throughout the supply chain from architects to contractors and manufacturers. The benefits of reusing products range from reducing wastes, extending product life and reducing carbon emissions are huge, and are being recognised in the industry.

ENFIELD STORAGE HUB, NITESH MAGDANI, NET POSITIVE SOLUTIONS

In the London Borough of Enfield, the regeneration scheme, Meridian Water, has circular economy targets in the development brief, so developers are required to demonstrate their commitment to reuse building materials from existing stock.

As the first buildings have been demolished (to make way for new infrastructure and buildings), we were able to play a role in salvaging key materials that have either been reused or are ready for future reuse projects. This involves understanding both supply and demand, while also helping the client to verify relevant quality protocols, testing and certification standards. 

The result is a surplus of salvaged building materials awaiting reuse. This does not constitute a reuse hub. Although in line with other local authorities, Enfield sees a potential role in activating storage hubs to leverage greater reuse of materials.

One of the main enablers to reuse is early engagement. To identify the materials available in a building, their quantities and – to some extent – their condition, pre-demolition or pre-fit-out audits should take place before tenants have left with recommendations for reuse.

EXCESS MATERIALS EXCHANGE NITESH MAGDANI, NET POSITIVE SOLUTIONS

In 2021, Net Positive Solutions was chosen as the Circular Economy Consultant for the London Borough of Enfield’s £6bln mixed-use regeneration scheme, Meridian Water. The role is to facilitate materials reuse between projects, and in particular between donors and recipients. One of the key initiatives implemented is a virtual portal for Enfield using the Excess Materials Exchange (EME) platform. We sought to help keep material reuse at its highest level, and to enable Meridian Water developments to hit their targets around zero waste and the circular economy. 

The EME is an online facilitated marketplace for exchange of excess materials business-to-business. The EME actively matches supply and demand for materials with their highest reuse opportunities. For Meridian Water, the platform became a great collaboration tool to initiate conversations and signpost circular opportunities, which were fairly non-existent to project stakeholders previously.

From a recent pilot project involving 10 global companies across different industries, material flows increased by 110% on average in financial value, and the ecological footprint reduced by 60% on average.

Open days and circular economy forums were used to bring solutions to life, and suddenly we were faced with the possibilities of using salvaged bricks for landscaping; metal cladding and steelwork for a sub-station project; and the reuse of 50-60-year-old steel-framed warehouses, either in their entirety, or some steel was to be cut down, refurbished, retested and resold back to the client (cheaper than virgin steel).

One of the learnings from the Enfield Materials Platform has been that a closed marketplace only functions as well as the number of active stakeholders using it. While we have had breakthroughs in material salvaging and reuse onsite, the client has actively encouraged EME to open up the platform across London and the rest of the UK, to ensure that reuse is not limited by boundaries.

THE FINISHES AND INTERIORS SECTOR (FIS) REUSE INITIATIVE, FLAVIE LOWRES FIMMM, FIS SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION

The Finishes and Interior Sector (FIS) is a trade association representing 600 members, from tier 1 contractors to smaller specialist contractors, manufacturers of ceiling systems or partitions, and distributors. FIS members recognise that the linear cycle of ‘take, make, use, dispose’ needs to become more circular and products need to stay longer in use.

Commercial offices get refitted on average every five-to-seven years, mainly because of tenants moving out. When a tenant moves out, the space is often stripped and refitted to a Cat A specification. Cat A typically includes kitchen and facilities, and basic building services and finishes, such as suspended ceilings, luminaires and raised access flooring.

Some of these elements will then again most likely be removed and disposed of when the space is fitted to a Cat B standard (a Cat B office is ready for a tenant to move in). Some of the products taken out of Cat A offices are often pretty much new.

Luminaires that might not have even been switched on will be recycled. This is not only a huge waste of resources, but also generates unnecessary carbon emissions. FIS members recognise that and are looking to address the issue by increasing the amount of products that get reused in new projects.

In 2023, the FIS launched a reuse initiative. Focusing on two products initially – suspended metal ceiling tiles and linear luminaires. The initiative will pilot the use of storage space for these products to understand if it is possible to create a marketplace for their reuse.

PRE-DEMOLITION AUDIT AT OSLO AIRPORT IN NORWAY, NITESH MAGDANI, NET POSITIVE SOLUTIONS

To validate material flows and assess the reuse potential from any building, a pre-demolition audit or materials survey is needed. We do this to help project teams understand where the value is and which building materials can be reused and how.

Once each building material is quantified, we are then able to convert the tonnage of materials to demonstrate potential embodied carbon reductions for the end-state development, and to justify reuse over new. 

The high-impact materials (key demolition products) are then displayed as Digital Product Passports and uploaded to the Materials Platform, so that these products can be shared, and to encourage other stakeholders to consider designing with existing materials instead of defaulting to new materials.

The TULIPS EU Horizon 2020 project at Oslo Airport, Norway, used the Excess Materials Exchange (EME) platform to demonstrate the process of capturing data and creating Digital Product Passports, to aid the contractor to reuse specific building elements. 

For this project, the EME team printed QR codes and affixed them to key demolition products, so that these products could be scanned and linked to their passports. Once scanned in a new location, we were able to update the passport during the storage period, and eventually track the materials to their new location.

The next iteration will be to tag materials with the manufacturer’s data and track and trace them, but also to verify chain of custody. This could apply to existing and new materials and be used over successive product lifecycles to ensure materials are kept in the loop.

Over the last five years or so, a number of platforms have become available where products are listed for reuse. Users can list products that have been identified from a pre-demolition audit and alert viewers of materials and products becoming available.

DATA AND THE ROLE OF STANDARDS AND STANDARDISATION GILLI HOBBS, REUSEFULLY

There has been much activity in the areas of reuse, pre-demolition audits and exchange platforms in the last five years. This has led to excellent case studies, guidance documents and the emergence of regulatory and policy levers to promote their uptake.

However, it can be difficult to gain consensus on aspects such as data requirements, processes to be followed, tests to be carried out, alongside basic issues of definitions and classifications. In this context, the development of standards can be very helpful, leading to the creation of a dedicated sub-committee called ‘CEN TC 350 SC1 Circular Economy in Construction’ that operates at the European level. 

National Standards Bodies across Europe have also set up national mirror groups to input the important standardisation work now underway. 

Having gone through a thorough gap analysis of the priorities for standardisation in a circular economy, five tasks groups have been recently established to build on Working Group 1 focused on Framework and Definitions. These task groups relate to – data, including product and building passports; pre-demolition and pre-redevelopment audits and evaluation; reuse of constructed assets, products and materials; and circularity assessment. 

It is encouraging that there is already much to build upon, from the PEMD platform in France for pre-demolition audits, to the reuse standards in Norway for concrete, and the consideration of reclaimed steel in Eurocodes updates. Progress in new standards and updating of existing standards to better consider circularity is certainly being driven by the EU policy shifts. 

This includes the recent revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to address and reduce the lifecycle carbon associated with buildings; the EU Taxonomy technical criteria linking sustainable finance to reducing primary materials; sustainability standard being mandated in public procurement with macro-objectives of improved resource use and circularity; and the revision of the Construction Product Regulations (see p16) to consider the marketing of used and remanufactured products. 

FOCUS ON

The Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3) is a leading professional institution, dedicated to engineering, environmental sciences, and materials research. As a registered charity governed by Royal Charter, IOM3 empowers its members in materials, minerals, mining, and related technical fields to drive the transition towards a low-carbon, resilient, and resource-efficient society. Their dedicated Sustainable Development Group pioneers sustainable practices throughout the entire materials lifecycle - from exploration and extraction, to processing, application, and innovative recycling and reuse solutions. Discover how the Sustainable Development Group is driving innovation and sustainability in materials science.

This article was written by Flavie Lowres FIMMM, Director of Green Thinking Ltd, Chair of the IOM3 Construction Materials Group and Finishes and Interiors Sector Sustainability Champion; Nitesh Magdani, Founder and Director of Net Positive Solutions; and Gilli Hobbs, Co-Founder and Director of Reusefully.