Circular Economy and Recycling of Pre-consumer …
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• the manufacturers of building materials and components, that may become the
receiver of recyclable waste from other sectors;
• the designers of buildings, that may orient this market and can guide environmental
quality strategies;
• the environmental certifiers, that may support the demand and the supply of recycled materials by highlighting the environmental parameters (and the related data)
involved in the assessment procedures.
Actually, all these stakeholders share a double field of interest, defined by the “The
Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC” (EC European Commission 2008) recently
emended by the Directive 2018/851 (EC European Commission 2018): on the one
hand, by-products
1 and on the other hand, certain specified wastes, that can reach an
“end-of-waste status
2 ”, that is able to cease to be waste
3 when they have undergone a
recovery, including recycling, operation. Working in a circular economy perspective
(Charter 2019) implies, therefore, developing all those actions, skills, knowledge and
information that allow us to:
• recognise and enhance the possibilities for by-products and secondary raw materials markets;
• orientate design and production in order to decrease the percentage of waste;
• characterise and improve the knowledge and traceability of by-products and secondary raw materials;
• analyse what, coming from the production and the usage processes, is commonly
considered scrap in order to recognise and select the parts of it that might have a
new use (recyclable waste) in comparison with the parts to be eliminated for being
conclusively deemed discardable;
• create and characterise new supply chains based on recycling activities;
• support recycling chains
4 through information and sensitisation campaign.
1 A substance or object, resulting from a production process, the primary aim of which is not the
production of that item, is a by-products if: (a) further use of the substance or object is certain; (b) the
substance or object can be used directly without any further processing other than normal industrial
practice; (c) the substance or object is produced as an integral part of a production process and (d)
further use is lawful, i.e. the substance or object fulfils all relevant product, environmental and health
protection requirements for the specific use and will not lead to overall adverse environmental or
human health impacts (EC European Commission 2008).
2 The conditions for the end-of-waste status are: (a) the substance or object is commonly used for
specific purposes; (b) a market or demand exists for such a substance or object; (c) the substance or
object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific purposes and meets the existing legislation
and standards applicable to products and (d) the use of the substance or object will not lead to
overall adverse environmental or human health impacts (EC European Commission 2008).
3 A substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard (EC European
Commission 2008).
4 On the issues of overcoming barriers when launching a waste market, see the interesting study
from the European Topic Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production: ETC/SCP Working
Paper No 5/2013, Approaches to using waste as a resource: Lessons learnt from UK experiences,
2013.
219
• the manufacturers of building materials and components, that may become the
receiver of recyclable waste from other sectors;
• the designers of buildings, that may orient this market and can guide environmental
quality strategies;
• the environmental certifiers, that may support the demand and the supply of recycled materials by highlighting the environmental parameters (and the related data)
involved in the assessment procedures.
Actually, all these stakeholders share a double field of interest, defined by the “The
Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC” (EC European Commission 2008) recently
emended by the Directive 2018/851 (EC European Commission 2018): on the one
hand, by-products
1 and on the other hand, certain specified wastes, that can reach an
“end-of-waste status
2 ”, that is able to cease to be waste
3 when they have undergone a
recovery, including recycling, operation. Working in a circular economy perspective
(Charter 2019) implies, therefore, developing all those actions, skills, knowledge and
information that allow us to:
• recognise and enhance the possibilities for by-products and secondary raw materials markets;
• orientate design and production in order to decrease the percentage of waste;
• characterise and improve the knowledge and traceability of by-products and secondary raw materials;
• analyse what, coming from the production and the usage processes, is commonly
considered scrap in order to recognise and select the parts of it that might have a
new use (recyclable waste) in comparison with the parts to be eliminated for being
conclusively deemed discardable;
• create and characterise new supply chains based on recycling activities;
• support recycling chains
4 through information and sensitisation campaign.
1 A substance or object, resulting from a production process, the primary aim of which is not the
production of that item, is a by-products if: (a) further use of the substance or object is certain; (b) the
substance or object can be used directly without any further processing other than normal industrial
practice; (c) the substance or object is produced as an integral part of a production process and (d)
further use is lawful, i.e. the substance or object fulfils all relevant product, environmental and health
protection requirements for the specific use and will not lead to overall adverse environmental or
human health impacts (EC European Commission 2008).
2 The conditions for the end-of-waste status are: (a) the substance or object is commonly used for
specific purposes; (b) a market or demand exists for such a substance or object; (c) the substance or
object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific purposes and meets the existing legislation
and standards applicable to products and (d) the use of the substance or object will not lead to
overall adverse environmental or human health impacts (EC European Commission 2008).
3 A substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard (EC European
Commission 2008).
4 On the issues of overcoming barriers when launching a waste market, see the interesting study
from the European Topic Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production: ETC/SCP Working
Paper No 5/2013, Approaches to using waste as a resource: Lessons learnt from UK experiences,
2013.