Identification of hazardous materials in construction is important prior to the demolition both in order to guarantee safe handling of hazardous waste and to guarantee a good quality of secondary raw materials from demolished or renovated constructions/buildings.
In the EIT RawMaterials funded lifelong learning education project PARADE (“Best practices for Pre-demolition Audits ensuring high quality Raw materials“) documents for supporting the predemoltion audit have been developed (see: www.vtt.fi/sites/PARADE).
An important characteristic of construction and building products is the relatively long life span. Because of the long lifespan, the restricted hazardous substances will enter the waste stream many decades after possible bans have been placed on their use, and they can therefore be found in renovation or demolition waste for a long time.
Many of these substances provide important functionality in a wide range of products, e.g. flame retardants.
Most countries have common practices for setting legal requirements for an asbestos inventory prior to demolition of buildings built before 1995.
Wastes containing asbestos are classified as hazardous waste, and management of asbestos waste need to fulfil the legislative requirements (e.g. licencing for removal of asbestos from construction, packaging, and disposal).
Lately, the focus has also been widened to other hazardous substances, setting requirement on waste management or limiting the recyclability of construction materials.
Examples of hazardous substances potentially present in historical construction products are additives or chemicals or hazardous components used in the construction products (e.g. flame retardants, impregnation chemicals, PCB, creosotes, mercury, etc) or contaminants from the use of the construction (e.g. oil spills on floors, PAH substances in flue gas channels etc).
Also, radioactive substances may appear (e.g. fire warning systems). Electronic equipment is typically regarded as hazardous waste (e.g. fluorescence lamps).
The auditor shall be independent in all demolition, deconstruction or renovation projects so the audit results are not biased by the specific interests of the owner or contractor.
The auditor shall have adequate educative background and specific training, and knowledge on current and historical construction, constructive systems, standardization, materials and hazardous substances, preferably also knowledge on C&DW management possibilities and reuse and recycling possibilities of different elements and materials.
Ideally, auditors educated in one country should be able to prove competence in other countries (many building and demolition companies are working in several countries). The development of an European certification system for auditors is recommended.
A pre-demolition audit is an inventory of materials and components arising from future demolition or renovation projects and their management and recovery options.
PARADE project seminar “Pre-demolition audit for circular economy” provided information on the pre-demolition concept as a tool for increasing the high quality recycling of construction and demolition waste, and an important measure for avoiding spreading of hazardous materials in the environment due to improved demolition activity.
Furthermore, the seminar addressed future drivers and tools supporting the use of pre-demolition audits to achieve circular economy targets in the demolition sector. A special topic was also how to enhance the lifelong learning of professionals by creating an understanding of waste as a resource.
The seminar was organised as part of the PARADE- project “Best Practices for Pre-demolition Audits Ensuring High Quality Raw Materials” (2018-19), which aims to develop life-long education materials on best practice for pre-demolition audit for improving C&D management (safe recycling), preventing unnecessary waste, maximizing value and sustainable use. The project is a continuation of the DG GROW study on waste auditing.
It is likely that the Commission will recommend member states to make waste audits mandatory in order to increase the quality of demolition and renovation waste for recycling.
The seminar brought together stakeholders from along the raw materials value chain representing demolition companies, end-users of construction materials, consultants, scientists from universities, research organizations and public authorities for discussing and exchanging views on hazardous material inventories and construction and demolition waste as a future resource. The seminar had in total 66 participants from 14 countries.
PARADE project, funded by EIT Raw Materials, is coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd and involves following partners: VITO (Belgium), VCB (Belgium), KU Leuven (Belgium) and TU Kosice (Slovakia). The educational materials created in the project will be available in project webpage www.vtt.fi/sites/PARADE
NOTE: this article was written by: Ms. Margareta Wahlström
VTT
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