Skip to main content

Circular Economic Modelling—Barriers and Challenges Throughout the Value Circle

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Proceedings of the 3rd RILEM Spring Convention and Conference (RSCC 2020) (RSCC 2020)

Part of the book series: RILEM Bookseries ((RILEM,volume 35))

Included in the following conference series:

  • 827 Accesses

Abstract

The transition from a linear to a circular economy is a process that has already started throughout our societies as one important strategy to reduce CO2 emissions and by decoupling the use of natural resources, materials and fossil fuels from economic activity. Using examples from the Construction Industry, this paper argues that key premises must be present for circularity to happen. The business case at each level of the value circle must be viable. New building standards backed up by adequate policy measures, e.g. green public procurement, CO2 and virgin materials taxation is likely to be required. Finally, securing future supply of secondary raw materials (SRM) must be demonstrated and adequate supply chains of SRM to emerge.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 189.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Interreg NWE project: ‘By-products for sustainable concrete in the urban environment’, www.nweurope.eu/urbcon.

  2. 2.

    Marie Curie PhD training network, http://www.dursaam.ugent.be.

  3. 3.

    Horizon2020 project: Geopolymer technology for the development of mineral wool waste value chains. https://www.wool2loop.eu/en/.

  4. 4.

    The European Recycling Industries Confederation.

  5. 5.

    According to the Wool2Loop project.

  6. 6.

    According to industrial partners in Wool2Loop and URBCON.

  7. 7.

    Based on internal communication within Wool2Loop project.

  8. 8.

    According to industrial partners in Urbcon project.

References

  1. UN: Global Status Report, 2017. https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/global-status-report-2017. Last accessed 2019/12/20

  2. Lehne J, Preston F (2018) Making Concrete Change. Innovation in Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete. The Royal Institute of International Affairs (UK), Chatham House

    Google Scholar 

  3. Habert, G., Ouellet-Plamondon, G.: Recent update on the environmental impact of geopolymers. RILEM Techn. Lett. 1 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  4. BIO Intelligence Service: Sectoral resource maps. European Commission, Prepared in response to an Information Hub request (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Gartner, E.: Industrially interesting approaches to “low-CO2” cements. Cem. Concr. Res. 34(9), 1489–1498 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Turner, L.K., Collins, F.G.: Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) emissions: a comparison between geopolymer and OPC cement concrete. Constr. Build. Mater. 43, 125–130 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Eurostat: Waste Generation (2016). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Waste_statistics. Last accessed 2019/12/19

  8. European Commission: EU Construction and Demolition Waste Protocol and Guidelines. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/eu-construction-and-demolition-waste-protocol-0_en. Last accessed 2019/12/20

  9. Meyer, C.: The greening of the concrete industry. Cement Concr. Compos. 31(8), 601–605 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Duxson, P., Van Deventer, J.S.J.: 17—Commercialization of geopolymers for construction—opportunities and obstacles. In: Provis, J.L., van Deventer, J.S.J. (eds.) Geopolymers. Woodhead Publishing, pp 379–400 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Väntsi, O., Kärki, T.: Mineral wool waste in Europe: a review of mineral wool waste quantity, quality, and current recycling methods. J. Mater. Cycles Waste Manage. 16(1), 62–72 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Feuerborn, H.-J.: Coal combustion products in Europe–an update on production and utilization, standardisation and regulation. In: World Coal Ash Conference (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Lloyd, N., Rangan, V.: Geopolymer concrete with fly ash. In: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies, UWM Center for By-Products Utilization (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  14. EUROSLAG: Statistics 2016—Euroslag. https://www.euroslag.com/products/statistics/statistics-2016/. Last accessed 2019/12/06

  15. Coppola, L., Buoso, A., Coffetti, D., Kara, P., Lorenzi, S.: Electric arc furnace granulated slag for sustainable concrete. Constr. Build. Mater. 123, 115–119 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Habert, G., De. Lacaillerie, J.D.E., Roussel, N.: An environmental evaluation of geopolymer based concrete production: reviewing current research trends. J. Clean. Prod. 19(11), 1229–1238 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kamseu, E., Moungam, L.M., Cannio, M., Bilong, N., Chaysuwan, D., Melo, U.C., Leonelli, C.: Substitution of sodium silicate with rice husk ash-NaOH solution in metakaolin based geopolymer cement concerning reduction in global warming. J. Clean. Prod. 142, 3050–3060 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Puertas, F.,Torres-Carrasco, M.: Use of glass waste as an activator in the preparation of alkali-activated slag. Mechanical strength and paste characterisation. Cem. Concr. Res. 57:95–104 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the projects Wool2Loop and URBCON and all partners in contributing with knowledge, insights as well as hard and soft data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Birgitte Holt Andersen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Andersen, B.H., Salvetti, G., Komkova, A. (2021). Circular Economic Modelling—Barriers and Challenges Throughout the Value Circle. In: M.C.F. Cunha, V., Rezazadeh, M., Gowda, C. (eds) Proceedings of the 3rd RILEM Spring Convention and Conference (RSCC 2020). RSCC 2020. RILEM Bookseries, vol 35. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76543-9_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76543-9_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-76542-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-76543-9

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics