Construction Waste Production in Macroeconomic Context

Abstract

This article aims at presenting the economic impacts of implementing the basic principles of construction demolition waste management in terms of saving construction costs. Emphasis is placed on fulfilling the 3R principle, i.e. reducing waste, reusing it, and recycling resources and products. Construction and demolition waste represents the largest mass waste flow in the EU, e.g. in 2018, it represented 36% of the total waste production in the whole EU- 27. The European Union is gradually introducing measures to reduce the production of construction waste compared to the Czech Republic, where the share of construction demolition waste on the total production was up to 42% in 2018. This value exceeds the EU-27 average. The article analyses available statistical data from the national CZSO and the European statistical office EUROSTAT on the waste production classified according to EWC-STAT, which is a classification of waste according to Directive No. 2150/2002. Items monitoring the waste produced by the construction industry are listed on the 41st to 43rd place of the EWC-STAT list of all monitored waste. The data obtained allows comparing three branches of construction production, the 41st Building construction, 42nd Civil engineering, and 43rd Specialized construction activities. Another possibility to obtain data is to use a division according to the waste producer economic activity (CZ NACE). The data obtained in this way is compared with the performance indicators of the national economy. By comparing the size of the construction demolition waste production with the performance of the national economy (especially the GDP indicator), the degree of their interdependence was determined. The aim of the analysis is to assess the relation between the country’s economic performance and the production of construction and demolition waste. The next step was to perform an analysis from the point of view of the 3R principle in order to examine the impact of measures to reduce the construction demolition waste production in connection with the already initiated processes of its possible recycling or reuse.