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)。2021年，该行业产生的二氧化碳排放量超过1000万吨，其中80%来自材料使用和现场活动。这比前一年增加了约12%，约占当年英国二氧化碳排放总量的2.4%(Statista，2022)。因此，英国建筑业必须从线性经济向循环经济转型，以符合国家减排目标，即到2030年减排68%，到2035年减排78%。在英国建筑业，骨料占材料使用量的60%，其次是混凝土(22%)、沥青(10%)和钢铁(4%)。建筑和拆迁工地垃圾占英国产生的垃圾总量的62%。这些建筑垃圾主要由可重复使用的建筑部件和建筑活动产生的碎片组成。混凝土和碎石通常可以回收成骨料再利用。木材可以回收利用，制成家具等工程木制品。钢、铜、黄铜等金属也是可回收利用的宝贵资源。回收利用建筑或拆迁项目中的高价值废弃建筑材料，否则将作为废物丢弃，是实现建筑循环经济的关键战略。然而，这种再利用的潜力往往受到全国各地建筑垃圾关键获取和实时信息差距的阻碍。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将建筑材料浪费降至最低，从而促进英国建筑业实现净零。它有以下具体目标：1.使用开放源码数据集综合一个框架，以确定和评估回收材料的再利用或再循环，并记录生成和使用这类信息的既定程序。使用上面的框架，通过开发一个利益相关者采购和交易建筑废料的在线市场，推动建筑零净额的循环性。与选定的参与者小组一起试行上述市场。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分。

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.