The construction sector generates the most waste: 40% of waste in Europe and 29.8% in Spain. In Catalonia, over seven million tonnes of waste were generated in 2023. This includes materials such as concrete, bricks, plaster, wood, glass, metals, plastic, solvents, asbestos, and excavated soil, most of which end up in landfills or are incinerated. For this reason, it is crucial to find innovative solutions to minimise and promote the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste (CDW). The key lies in driving circular business models within the sector, and how to achieve this is the challenge addressed by the project “Analysis of new circular business models around CDW and validation through an experimental phase on-site”, led by the Waste Cluster of Catalonia (CREC) with the participation of inèdit.

As part of the project, inèdit is responsible for designing and facilitating two participatory workshops with key sector stakeholders, where proposals for potential circular business models will be developed and validated. Additionally, together with Eco Intelligent Growth, they will design the project’s experimental phase, in which some of the proposed and defined circular business strategies or models will be tested, validated, and analysed in real construction sites. The experimental phase will also involve Calaf Grup, which will lead the execution of the on-site experimentation phase.

With these new circular business models, the aim is to explore ways to valorise this waste, either by transforming it into new recycled construction materials or by promoting commercial channels that facilitate its reuse. The project involves various key stakeholders from Catalonia’s construction sector ecosystem, including material and product suppliers, construction companies, knowledge and innovation centres, waste managers, and public administration bodies.

Final objective: Stimulating new circular initiatives

In the first phase of the project, a comprehensive analysis of the construction and demolition waste sector was conducted. In February, the first co-creation workshop was held, facilitated by Elena Badia Elias and Adriana Sanz Mirabal, project managers at inèdit, where best practices related to CDW flows were reviewed, and potential initiatives were identified to develop circular business models that valorise waste as a resource.

Some key takeaways from this first workshop were:

• Waste that is well segregated and characterised at source can be recovered more easily.
• It is necessary to identify economic drivers that will encourage industrial transformation and stimulate the demand for recovered materials.
• Implementing circular initiatives in the sector requires a clear understanding of the stakeholder ecosystem and identifying the key players in the value chain who are receptive and proactive towards circularity.
• There is significant lack of awareness and limited enforcement of legal obligations regarding circularity in the sector.
• To make the sector more circular, public administrations must position themselves as facilitators of change.

On 1 April, a second workshop will be held, again facilitated by inèdit, which will delve deeper into how to pilot some of the initiatives proposed in the first workshop. This session will serve as the foundation for designing the project’s experimental phase. “The idea behind the pilot test is that, once the project is completed, it continues to evolve and improve over time and, ideally, serves as a stimulus for launching other circular business initiatives or models,” explain Elias and Sanz.

“Analysis of new circular business models around CDW and validation through an experimental phase on-site” is coordinated by the Waste Cluster of Catalonia (CREC) and involves, in addition to inèdit, Eco Intelligent Growth and the Centre de Gestió Mediambiental (CGM). The project also benefits from the collaboration of CELSA GROUP, ALIER, Blue Room Innovation and THEKER Robotics.

The project started on 15 January and is scheduled to conclude in August. It has a budget of €99,754.75 and is funded by the ACCIÓ IRC project call.