Impact of green public procurement on the market of recycled concrete

Impact of green public procurement on the market of recycled concrete

Bougrain, Frédéric

2017-06-21

According to the European Commission website, construction and demolition waste (CDW - consisting of materials such as concrete, bricks, gypsum, wood, glass, metals, asbestos, excavated soil…) accounts for approximately 25% - 30% of all waste generated in the EU. To move towards a recycling society, various policies have been launched by European government. France adopted the framework provided by Directive 2008/98/EC on waste to promote the circular economy. The aim is to achieve a 70% (by weight) recycling target by 2020 for non-hazardous CDW while the valorisation percentage (reuse and recycling) is still around 60%. However, CDW are mainly used for backfilling operations and recycled as aggregates constituents of roads. This strategy is usually considered as a down-cycling option. High quality recycling is not developed because of the low demand for recycled aggregates as constituents of structural concrete for buildings. Therefore, there is a need to find drivers to spur the demand for recycled aggregates offering a higher added-value. The development of green building assessment system such as LEED, BREEAM or HQE, public procurement which represents a key source of demand for firms in sectors such as construction, and landfill taxation are studied in the framework of the French national project RECYBETON and are considered as potential drivers. This research paper focuses on one driver: the development of public procurement requiring a percentage of recycled aggregates in their call for tenders when transport distances do not exceed 25km. It examines how the incorporation of recycled aggregates in public procurement could impact the demand for recycled aggregates in concrete construction. The enforcement of the public policy aimed at spurring the use of recycled aggregates in concrete construction is also discussed.

recycled aggregates
concrete
waste
public procurement
green building

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Conference proceedings

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(c) 2017 The Author(s)