New Circular Economy Business Model for More Sustainable Urban Construction
Updated on 12.04.2023
CINDERELA develops a Circular Economy Business Model (CEBM) for the use of secondary raw materials in urban areas. It connects industries, municipal services, decision makers and the public through an ICT platform. Waste is converted and used as building materials to contribute to a 20 % reduction of environmental impacts down the value and supply chain, reducing virgin material exploitation.
More information
The EU28's total waste generation in 2014 was 2,598 M tonnes, the highest since 2004, 33.5 % of which was from the construction sector, being also one of the larger consumers of inorganic raw materials. Construction activities are mainly localised in urban areas where by 2050 about 86 % of the developed world is expected to live. The territories involved are Madrid (Spain), Maribor (Slovenia), and Skopje (North Macedonia).
The CinderOSS platform is a ‘One-Stop-Shop’ service: (i) an online ICT platform for tracking and modelling the urban waste-to-product flows, online marketing and sharing knowledge and information along the value chain; (ii) facilitating the production and marketing of (SRM) based construction products; and (iii) building with SRM based construction products supported by building information modelling (BIM).
The different streams of waste that will be used in the project are construction and demolition waste, industrial wastes, heavy fraction from municipal solid waste and sewage sludge, among others. Most of these are currently landfilled and/or incinerated. Their suitability for use for building materials will be demonstrated through large scale demonstration activities in Slovenia, Croatia and Spain while the ICT platform will be demonstrated in Slovenia, Croatia, Spain, Poland, Italy and the Netherlands.
The sustainability of CEBM will be proven with the environmental, economic and social assessment through its whole life (LCA, LCC and S-LCA). The pre-feasibility analysis of the proposed CEBM indicates an increase of recycling by 30 % of construction and demolition waste, 13 % of industrial waste, 100 % of heavy fraction and 25 % of sewage sludge with a net profit of 18 %.
Relevance for Circular Systemic Solutions
In European urban and peri-urban areas, where most construction activities take place, large quantities of different waste types are produced. These waste types are generated by municipal services, the construction sector and other industries. This waste can be a valuable source for the locally available secondary raw materials (SRM) for urban construction works (as substitutes for virgin materials) and can create a window of circular business opportunities for construction companies. However, building circular approaches in the construction sector that involve the recovery and use of SRM from waste streams is a challenging task for companies due to a lack of appropriate knowledge, technologies, good practices, and incentives to stimulate the demand and the supply actors to take action.
CINDERELA addresses this challenge by assessing the urban waste to resource opportunities. CINDERELA also develops and tests new SRM-based construction materials and their applications in large-scale demonstration pilots to develop a pan-European pool of knowledge and showcase good practices essential to help construction companies build circular economy business models. As a result, local and regional authorities can learn more about how to support local stakeholders and what incentives can potentially be useful in their context.
Horizon programme(s) and/or topic(s)
Programme(s):
- H2020-EU.3.5.: SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials (Main programme)
- H2020-EU.3.5.4.: Enabling the transition towards a green economy and society through eco-innovation
Topic(s):
- CIRC-01-2016-2017: Systemic, eco-innovative approaches for the circular economy: large-scale demonstration projects
Budget
€ 7 596 365.25 (EU contribution: € 6 729 219)
Responsible organisation and contact details
Zavod Za Gradbenistvo Slovenije
Contact the project: https://www.cinderela.eu/The-project/About
Project consortium partners
- Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi
- Bexel Consulting doo Beograd
- Opencontent Societa Cooperativa
- Fundacion Benefico-Docente Gomez-Pardo
- Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation
- Nigrad Komunalno Podjetje doo
- Instytut Ekologii Terenow Uprzemyslowionych
- Asociacion De Empresarios Del Henares
- Technische Universiteit Delft
- Polo Tecnologico Alto Adriatico Andrea Galvani Societa' Consortile Perazioni
- KplusV Organisatieadvies BV
- Gradezen Institut Makedonija AD Skopje
- Regionalna razvojna agencija za Podravje - Maribor
built environment, CEAP2 key product value chain
large 500 000-200 000, medium 200 000-50 000, and small cities 50 000-5 000
