Analysing the circular economy opportunities in the French construction sector related to the sustainable supply chain: a waste input-output analysis

Abstract

The construction sector has long recognised the decisive role of the various phases of the building lifecycle in the global environment. The identification of the construction environmental impacts is a significant progress for the development of a sustainable supply chain related to the raw material consumption and the construction and demolition waste (C&DW) generation. In this sense, circular economics' principles have solid potential to address these challenges in all European Union countries and especially in France. Nowadays, input-output (I/O) modelling covers the analysis of waste generation (WIO). As the supply chain of the building construction process is complex and has several related activities, and in a preliminary moment a conceptual model was developed, this approach provided an assessment of the mitigation actions of C&DW generation in France. This evaluation shows some positive waste reduction of several materials in the construction process, especially in concrete, metal, rock/rubble and sand/soil. However, the same study exhibits that even materials that can be recycled in the construction process, e.g., concrete, plastic, and metal, might not have a positive waste reduction during demolition due to the lack of proper waste separation and contamination during the process.