Facilitating circular construction practices in the UK: A data driven online marketplace for waste building materials

英国建筑业约占全国原材料使用量的40%（欧盟统计局，2019年）。该行业在2021年产生了超过1000万吨的二氧化碳排放量，其中80%来自材料使用和现场活动。这比前一年增加了约12%，占当年英国二氧化碳排放总量的2.4%左右（Statista, 2022）。因此，英国建筑业从线性经济向循环经济过渡，以实现到2030年68%和到2035年78%的国家减排目标，这一点至关重要。在英国的建筑行业中，骨料占材料使用量的60%，其次是混凝土占22%，沥青占10%，钢铁占4%。建筑和拆迁现场产生的垃圾占英国总垃圾的62%。这些建筑废物主要包括可重复使用的建筑构件和建筑活动产生的碎片。混凝土和碎石通常可以回收成骨料再使用。木材可以回收制成像家具这样的工程木制品。像钢、铜和黄铜这样的金属也是回收或再利用的宝贵资源。重新利用来自建筑或拆除项目的高价值废弃建筑材料，否则这些材料将被作为废物丢弃，这是实现循环建筑经济的关键战略。然而，这种再利用的潜力往往受到全国各地建筑废物获取和实时信息差距的严重阻碍。在此背景下，该项目旨在启动一个数字平台，通过回收或再利用框架最大限度地减少建筑材料浪费，促进英国建筑行业实现净零排放。它有以下具体目标：1\；使用开源数据集来合成一个框架，用于描述和评估用于再利用或再循环的回收材料，并记录生成和使用此类信息的既定过程。使用上述框架，通过为利益相关者开发一个在线市场来采购和交易建筑废物，从而推动建筑零净循环。在选定的参与者群体中试点上述市场。这将包括建筑公司、承包商、回收设施和潜在买家，确保参与者代表建筑行业的不同部门。

The UK construction sector accounts for around 40% of the national raw materials use (Eurostat, 2019). The sector produced over 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, of which 80% came from materials use and on-site activities. This was an increase of about 12 percent from the previous year and accounted for some 2.4 percent of the total UK carbon dioxide emissions that year (Statista, 2022). As a result, it is critical to transition from a linear to a circular economy in the UK construction industry to decarbonise in line with the national emission reduction targets of 68% by 2030 and 78% by 2035\.Within the construction industry in the UK, aggregates constitute 60% of material usage, followed by concrete at 22%, asphalt at 10%, and iron and steel at 4%. Building and demolition site waste accounts for 62% of the total waste generated in the UK. This construction waste consists mainly of reusable building components and debris from construction activities. Concrete and rubble can often be recycled into aggregate for reuse. Wood can be recycled into engineered wood products like furniture. Metals like steel, copper, and brass are also valuable resources to recycle or reuse.Reusing high-value waste construction materials from building or demolition projects that otherwise would be discarded as waste is a key strategy for achieving a circular construction economy. However, this potential for reuse is often hindered by a critical access and real-time information gap on construction waste around the country. Against this backdrop, this project aims to initiate a digital platform that fosters the attainment of net zero in the UK construction sector by minimizing building materials waste through a recycle or reuse framework. It has the following specific objectives:1\. Use open-source data sets to synthesise a framework for the characterisation and assessment of recovered materials for reuse or recycling, and document well-established processes for generating and using such information.2\. Use the framework from the above to drive circularity for Net Zero in construction by developing an online marketplace for stakeholders to procure and trade construction waste.3\. Pilot the aforementioned marketplace with a select group of participants. This is to include construction companies, contractors, recycling facilities, and potential buyers, ensuring that participants represent diverse segments of the construction industry.