Territories' Challenges and Opportunities to Promote Circular Economy in the Building Sector

The rapid development of cities implies significant material inflows and outflows. The construction sector is one of the main consumers of raw materials and producers of waste. The waste from the building sector, for its quantity and potential for recovery, constitutes significant deposits requiring major efforts, by combining different actors, to achieve the circular economy's objectives. It is necessary to understand and know the current construction actors' knowledge of stocks, urban metabolism, deposits, and recovery practices in this context. This article aims to explore the role of local governments in planning strategies by facilitating a circular economy. In particular, the principal opportunities and challenges of communities for applying the principles of the circular economy in the building sector will be identified. The approach used for the study was to conduct semi-structured interviews with those responsible for circular economy projects within local administrations of some communities in France. The results show territories' involvement in the inclusion and application of the principles of the circular economy in the building sector. The main challenges encountered are numerous, hence the importance of having identified and described them so that the different actors can work to meet them.





References:
[1] Eurostat, “Eurostat - Data Explorer,” 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.do (accessed Apr. 02, 2021).
[2] World Bank, “Urban population (% of total population) - European Union Data,” 2021. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?end=2019&locations=EU&start=1960 (accessed Apr. 06, 2021).
[3] European Parliament and European Council, “Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on Waste and Repealing Certain Directives.,” 2008. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008L0098 (accessed Apr. 06, 2021).
[4] A. Mastrucci, A. Marvuglia, E. Popovici, U. Leopold, and E. Benetto, “Geospatial characterization of building material stocks for the life cycle assessment of end-of-life scenarios at the urban scale,” Resour. Conserv. Recycl., vol. 123, pp. 54–66, 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.07.003.
[5] S. O. Ajayi et al., “Reducing waste to landfill: A need for cultural change in the UK construction industry,” J. Build. Eng., vol. 5, pp. 185–193, Mar. 2016, doi: 10.1016/j.jobe.2015.12.007.
[6] S. Barles, “Urban metabolism of Paris and its region,” J. Ind. Ecol., vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 898–913, Dec. 2009, doi: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00169.x.
[7] Ministère de la Transition Ecologique, “LOI n° 2020-105 du 10 février 2020 relative à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l’économie circulaire (1) - Légifrance,” 2020. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000041553759/ (accessed Apr. 06, 2021).
[8] Ademe, “Obligations des collectivités dans le cadre du service public,” 2020. https://www.ademe.fr/expertises/dechets/elements-contexte/politique-vigueur/dossier/cadre-reglementaire/obligations-collectivites-cadre-service-public (accessed Apr. 06, 2021).
[9] C. Kennedy, J. Cuddihy, and J. Engel-Yan, “The changing metabolism of cities,” J. Ind. Ecol., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 43–59, Mar. 2007, doi: 10.1162/jie.2007.1107.
[10] Swiss Life Group. (2017, May 8). What is the lifespan of a house? https://www.swisslife.com/en/home/hub/what-is-the-lifespan-of-a-house.html