The European Environment Agency (EEA) has identified significant challenges in Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW) management that need to be addressed.

The belief that around 90% of C&D waste is recyclable emphasises the potential for reducing the environmental impact of construction activities through recycling and proper waste management.

However, the fact that at least 35% of global C&D waste is still sent to landfill sites without treatment indicates challenges in implementing effective waste management practices.

The Eu has identified the following as key issues that are preventing effective waste management:

Lack of Traceability

There is limited information available on the origin and quality of construction and demolition waste material impacts on effective waste management, hindering recycling and reuse practices.

Lack of Data

There is a lack of insufficient data on construction and demolition waste materials prevents access to data to enable the analysis of the environmental impact of this waste as well as it recyclability, and reuse potential.

Lack of Stakeholders Collaboration

There is inadequate communication among stakeholders, including construction companies, subcontractors, central and local governments and waste management entities.

What’s needed to transform construction waste management to achieve circular economy objectives?

Strategies to enhance traceability, improve data collection and analysis, and promote collaboration among stakeholders will contribute to more sustainable and circular practices in the construction sector, but not without Stakeholder inputs and real data output from the construction sector that can be relied on i.e.

1. Stakeholder collaboration is absolutely crucial.

2. Overcoming barriers to information-sharing is essential.

When access to infomation is available and stakeholders can access this infomation and make evidence based decisions construction and demolition waste management activities can be effectively managed and real resource efficiency in construction and demolition waste can be achieved.

The EU has identified they following as the barriers to effective waste management within the construction sector:

1. ·        Time and resource-intensive information gathering.

2. ·        Costs associated with data collection, storage, and management.

3. ·        Slow digital adoption in the construction sector.

Looking ahead, embracing digital transformation and implementing the HUB360 platform which not only streamlines day-to-day processes for cost savings but also enables collaboration among stakeholders, data collection and traceability is an obvious and costs effective solution.

HUB360 can support both the Stakeholders & the Construction and Demolition sector to overcoming the barriers

HUB360 facilitates seamless information gathering, storage, and analysis, effectively addressing challenges linked to traditional methods. This ensures that business owners and stakeholders have access to comprehensive analytics, supporting well-informed decision-making.