Circular economy
Material availability, resource conservation and construction prices are increasingly focusing on the recyclability and life cycle of construction products. With the advent of the Taxonomy Regulation and the ESG targets in the EU, it is important for all market participants to become fit in terms of sustainable procurement. The trend shows that in future, contracts will be awarded more to providers who can meet certain sustainability targets - from the procurement of raw materials to operations and recycling. This will also affect the construction industry to a large extent.
To date, the demand for primary raw materials has far exceeded the supply of waste materials, but in the future, more and more buildings built in the post-war years will be sent to the waste management sector and can be made available to the construction industry as secondary raw materials. In addition, the availability of primary raw materials will continue to decrease.
The concept of the circular economy aims to ensure that products, materials and components are reused and recycled within a cycle and that hardly any waste is produced at the end. The circular economy begins with the intelligent design of products and materials and encompasses the entire life cycle of products and services. At the end of its life cycle, it should be possible to recycle a product as completely as possible and recover the raw materials it contains. The overall view also includes material, water and energy reduction during the individual production steps.
The circular economy conserves natural resources and is a prerequisite for achieving climate targets.