Selection Criteria for Building Materials and Components in Line with the Circular Economy Principles in the Built Environment—A Review of Current Trends

Kamel Mohamed Rahla,Ricardo Mateus,Luís Bragança

doi:10.3390/infrastructures6040049

Abstract

A growing concern is given to the environmental impacts caused by the construction industry. Waste generation, resource consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions are the main drawbacks of the rapid urbanization that the world is witnessing. As a response to these pressing issues, policymakers and academia are exploring the concept of Circular Economy (CE) to manage resources better and achieve resource efficiency while eliminating waste. One of the strategies to implement CE in the built environment is to select the appropriate building materials and components from the early stages to carry out the concept’s principles along the value chain and create a closed-loop system. Therefore, this study aims at identifying selection criteria for building elements according to CE principles through a review of the latest research. Results have shown that little has been concretely achieved in terms of a paradigm shift to CE since the main focus of the literature is still the use of recycled products and the recyclability of building materials and components at their end-of-life. Although the present study is solely focused on the technical aspect of building materials and components, it outlines current adopted criteria to bring about a circular built environment and highlights the need for a more innovative approach to attain higher circularity levels.

Highlights

The construction industry has been an essential sector for humans as it provides the necessary infrastructures, buildings, jobs and economic prosperity [1]
The analysis indicates the dominance of the European research output in Circular Economy (CE)
This is due to the numerous European Union (EU) funded projects that investigated CE in the built environment (e.g., BAMB) and the collaboration developed across the continent in addition to the release of the CE action plan by the European Commission in 2015 and 2020 [26,52]

Summary

Introduction

The construction industry has been an essential sector for humans as it provides the necessary infrastructures, buildings, jobs and economic prosperity [1]. With the rapid urbanization that the world is facing, the building sector is imposing severe environmental impacts on the planet [2] This accounts for more than a third of the waste generated, emissions, and materials consumption [3]. This would create a global issue of materials scarcity as the consumption rates would exceed the regeneration rates of resources [4,5] In this context, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) came into broad recognition by policymakers in Europe, to urge the industry to shift its linear consumption pattern to a circular one wherein the economic progress does not threaten the ecosystems [6,7].

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Discussion

Conclusion