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

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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.