Project Overview
- Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) accounts for more than 30% of all waste generated in the EU, reaching approximately 450-500 million tonnes annually: in terms of volume, it is the largest waste stream in the EU across all industrial sectors.
- Timber material generates a tremendous amount of waste annually from building element manufacturing, construction, demolition, and renovation, while only part of it is currently being recovered, with high variability per country.
CIRCULess targets on fostering circularity in the construction and manufacturing process industries, by minimizing Construction and Demolition waste (C&DW) as well as Manufacturing waste (MW), with a focus on mineral and timber-based material streams, by developing new processes for circularity of secondary materials from wastes/residues for all industrial processes, without compromising quality and performance as well as sustainable-by-design circular products. CIRCULess project will experiment with new circular products and processing techniques to improve the quality and performance of secondary materials up to industry standards and improve environmental friendliness. These actions will be supported by a tailored digital platform for waste management, orienting decision-making & operation, while recommendations for standards updates and relevant training material for both upskilling and training will be created.
The Concept
Coming soon
Project Objectives
01.
Construction value chain and materials modelling, developing a digital representation of the sector for construction products design and optimization strategies to improve the sustainability of the value chain.
02.
Define eco-circular design and waste reduction approaches for the construction industry, including developing separation, sorting and digital inspection systems for quality control, developing circular by design logistic process and construction design solutions and designing recyclable by design (eco-design) new construction materials, facilitating circularity
03.
Foster upcycling of C&DMW through a digital waste management platform for efficient circularity
04.
Create digital tools to support eco-design, sorting, recycling, processing, developing a unique product passport system and decreasing sorting complexity and costing
05.
Demonstrate technical, ecological and economic performances of secondary raw materials prototypes, using the CIRCLess platform for decision making, remote control, intelligence building
06.
Contribute to certification, scale up, uptake and business case of recycled products for the construction industry, defining reskilling and upskilling package for construction sector, recommendations for standardization and for policy makers on CDMW material upcycling
Our Workplan
Key Project Outputs
01.
Increase secondary resources use via innovative characterization and processing techniques
02.
Circular by design solutions for increasing resource efficiency
03.
Definition of a digital passport structure tailored for secondary materials
04.
Proven technical and economic feasibility of new material for the construction industries
05.
Creation of new circular business opportunities and revenue flows
06.
Optimisation of existing value chain toward carbon footprint reduction of construction and manufacturing sectors
07.
Decision support for promoting circularity in the construction industry
08.
Capacity building and upskilling for the construction and manufacturing sectors
09.
Contribution to standardization