Untapped potential in making EU construction product manufacturers deal with waste – think tank
Clean Energy Wire
European manufacturers in the construction industry should be made responsible for managing the waste created when their products reach the end of their lives, think tank BPIE said in a report. There is untapped potential in the EU to use the so-called Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle in the construction sector, requiring manufacturers to manage their products when they reach the end of their useful lives. "It is evident that EPR systems hold significant potential to promote circular business models and raise awareness of sustainable design and use of construction materials," the think tank wrote. Measures to implement such systems would include aligning sustainability criteria in product design (making products that are easy to separate or contain recycled content), as well as addressing warranties and product safety for their re-use.
The idea of making manufacturers more responsible over a product's entire life span alrady has been successfully implemented in the packaging, batteries or electrical waste industries – all of which are responsible for managing their products' end-of-life stage. While BPIE says that adopting producer responsibility measures in the construction industry is more complicated, the think tank highlighted successful examples from the Netherlands and France, where schemes for flat glass and construction and demolition waste have been introduced, respectively.
As buildings become more energy efficient and the electricity they use cleaner, the climate and environmental effects of construction and renovation come into focus. The EU's construction industry uses nearly 50 percent of extracted materials and generates almost 40 percent of the union's waste. Circular economy principles, where used materials and components are re-introduced into the market instead of being discarded at the end of their lives, hold great promise for reducing emissions, alleviating environmental impacts and avoiding supply chain insecurities.
