Apr 24, 2023

Circular Construction and Infrastructure for Sustainable Cities

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Cities across the world are facing material constraints and struggling with immense waste generation. As per the report Circle Economy (2023)[1], currently, worldwide material consumption has already surpassed the sustainable threshold of 8 tons per person, by a factor of 1.5 times. Eurostat statistics (2023)[2] indicate 4.8 tons per EU inhabitant waste generated in 2020, of which more than 30 percent went to landfill sites. This article explains the broad evolution and transition of the concept of circular economy from industries to cities and explores the emerging application of #CircularEconomy concepts in the construction and infrastructure sector.

The concept of circular economy has existed for a long period of time, but primarily in an industrial context, like Eco-Industrial Park and Waste to Energy plants. Circular economy principles in the case of industries are usually known as #IndustrialSymbiosis or #IndustrialSynergy and use two approaches i.e., first, the waste of one industry can be used as feed for another industry, and second, industries are co-located based on their compatibility. Waste from one industry like process waste water, slag, petcoke, sludge, packaging waste, scrap material, process heat, etc. can be used by other industries in several forms like cement production, fuel, space heating, composite material, nutrient extraction, etc., and essentially helps keep the material and energy in a closed loop; also stopping waste from going to landfill sites. In Waste to Energy plants, Electricity or Hydrogen is generated through a process called plasma gasification, using waste as raw material including municipal solid waste or agricultural waste like (rice husk, and palm tree waste) or industrial waste (like petcoke) or mix of these. Sometimes waste enrichment is required to achieve the specific calorific value of waste before conversion to energy.

Recently there has been a lot of focus on the application of circular economy principles in urban areas. Application of circular economy in the urban area is usually based on the following principles i.e., either "being resource efficient in construction "or "minimizing waste generation" or "reusing waste" or "keeping the material in the loop for a longer duration" or "high-value use of components at the end of first life" or "through the #SharedEconomy" like the use of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). Circular transition in the built environment can be achieved by effective and enhanced reuse of old construction material (through urban mining and use of material passport), use of new circular composite materials (building, pavements, street furniture, etc.), process heat capture (from utilities like from power plants, waste treatment plants and public amenities like an ice rink), generating waste to energy (from municipal solid waste), generating manure and extracting valuable elements from sludge (sewage and wastewater treatment plant), community repair initiatives, etc.

The construction sector in specific utilizes circular economy principals through a multitude of measures like circular buildings construction especially focusing on the reuse of construction material components from redevelopment projects or other decommissioned projects (high-value harvested component usage, deconstruction), use of biobased materials (used in building construction, interior, and finishes), efficiency during the design of buildings using Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Digital Twin, circular procurement of raw construction material, contracting innovation for post life cycle management of the building, etc. While research on the utility of circular economy concepts in building construction has advanced recently, there has been limited research, understanding, and awareness of the use of circular economy principles in the urban infrastructure sector. The circularity in the infrastructure sector can be achieved at several stages including, pre-design, design, procurement, execution, operation and maintenance, and post-life cycle management. The infrastructure sector utilizes several measures to achieve circular transition including intensive reuse of construction material Resource optimization, modular construction elements, use of sensors to predict the remaining functional life of infrastructure and predictive maintenance, process heat capture and reuse, extraction of valuable material from waste and waste to energy, etc.

The use of concepts of circular economy in the construction and infrastructure sector is a novel but promising area and becoming indispensable in achieving self-reliance, sustainability, and resilience in cities. The #Netherlands is at the forefront of #circulartransition and has come up with a national circular economy transition vision [3] that aspires to reduce the use of primary raw materials by half till 2030 and to be completely circular by 2050; many cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, etc have come up with their specific measurable goals and circular action plans showing their commitment to circular transition. Continued innovation, a multidisciplinary approach, industry-wide #collaboration, and #knowledgesharing is required for achieving a circular transition in the construction and infrastructure sector.

Author: Anoop Jha

Image: Author

Statistics source:

[1] Circle Economy. (2023). The circularity gap report 2023. Amsterdam: Circle Economy.

[2] Eurostat (online data code: env_wasgen)

[3] Government of the Netherlands

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#CircularEconomy #IndustrialSymbiosis #IndustrialSynergy #MaterialPassport #UrbanMining #CircularProcurement #ProcessHeatRecovery #WastetoEnergy #MaterialInnovation #BiobasedMaterial #Circulartransition #builtenvironment #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #Rotterdam #Hague #Utrecht #Netherlands

  

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