Reinforced concrete, plaster, sockets, switches, doors, and windows should not be thrown away: everything is recycled and reused. In an environmentally sustainable world, nothing is “for rubbish”. Not even the rubble itself, which is fatally created when someone demolishes a building or when renovating it. The French generate more than 200 million tons of waste every year. To reduce this dizzying amount of garbage, the country’s authorities have for some years taken action not only to recycle and reuse plastic, paper, glass and other recyclable materials, but also to give new uses and a second life to construction. materials.
The effort began with the law on “Energy Transition for Green Growth”, which was approved by the French Parliament on 18 August 2015 in the framework of the goal set by the European Commission to utilize by 2020 70% of building materials thrown as “Rubble” from the buildings. Thus, on February 11, 2020, the law on the “Recycling Economy” was published in France, which provides incentives for the decomposition and reuse of construction waste generated during the demolition or renovation of buildings.
The circular decomposition of building materials
The construction and public works industry has been characterized as a major consumer of raw materials. It takes about 30 kilos of natural raw materials to make just one kilo of industrial products. Now that demolition is taking place in France, care is being taken to ensure that the rubble is systematically sent to waste management facilities so that some of it can be recycled and reused in some way.
Recyclable materials after proper processing change shape to be used differently. Recyclable is the material from which they are made and not the objects themselves. Otherwise the waste is destroyed, buried or incinerated. Nevertheless, some of the construction waste destined for destruction can be reused with some treatment.
This is where the process of cyclical decomposition intervenes, which allows the traditional management scheme of decomposed building materials to be overcome and drastically reduces the consumption of raw materials and the generation of waste.
There are three storage, repair and resale platforms operated by the ReaVie Environmental Organization in the greater Paris area. The “technical evaluators” of the team confirm that the materials that reach their laboratories are exploitable. Then they take the road for their cleaning, proper treatment or repair and remodeling. The technicians consider whether it is possible to reuse them either in the way they were used for the first time or after they have been adapted or rebuilt properly.
The cyclical decomposition and reuse of construction materials are initiatives for the protection of the environment, but not only. The purpose of these actions is to reduce waste production and make better use of raw materials and natural resources. This is an economic goal, since the reuse of an object or material is an action that is characterized as “economically viable”.
Businesses in this way save resources, as they have the ability to reduce the production costs of the product they produce. Also, the cyclical deconstruction favors local businesses, ie the decentralization of the economy and employment. These new jobs have a significant social impact as they economically revitalize local communities.
The dynamics of the industry
With the 2020 law on the circular economy as the driving force and inspiration, the construction and public works sector is now increasingly focusing on the process of decomposing and reusing materials. More and more professionals in the wider construction sector are realizing that times are changing.
The French state is mobilizing to push things forward, that is, for a sustainable economy and a resilient 21st century society. Funding for research in this area has increased for about five years.
But if there is no financial interest to support any social or environmental initiative, things get stuck. This is why most companies react to any change when they know that not only is there no financial benefit for them but that they will have to pay the cost to change the environmental uses.
