On September 20, a conference on the circular economy in the construction industry took place in the Circular Hub at the Hybernská Campus. The aim was to follow up on the meeting of stakeholders from this field, which took place in 2017, and which resulted in a number of barriers preventing the implementation of these principles in practice. Among them is also a general lack of trust in construction products made from secondary raw materials. The Ministry of Industry and Trade therefore commissioned the development of a Catalog of products and materials containing secondary raw materials for use in the construction industry, from which the professional public promises to break down barriers and start cooperation.
The first swallows of positive practice were presented at the conference by representatives of developers, recyclers and architects.
Despite far-reaching and complex discussions, we are returning to the beginning. The main barrier to the development of recycling and the circular economy in the construction industry is low landfill fees and disproportionately low prices of natural raw materials.
The use of secondary raw materials is a necessary necessity for increasing raw material security. The Czech Republic is up to 80% dependent on the import of raw materials, and the recycling rate is not entirely satisfactory in some areas. Construction is becoming a sector that consumes 50% of all the world's resources, and according to the latest reports, for example, the state of sand reserves worldwide is alarming. The world is running out of raw materials, so it is necessary to start looking for cooperation within the entire supplier-customer cycle and to start looking at buildings and the construction industry from a different perspective. Buildings are obviously one of the important sources of building materials of the future, and it is thus possible to start looking at buildings as material banks.
The new Catalog of products and materials containing secondary raw materials for use in construction, presented at the event by Antonín Lupíšek from CTU:
