Half of all primary raw materials in North-West Europe are used in the construction sector, making it the most resource intensive industrial sector. It also represents 30% of all waste produced in the European Union, with only 4% that is actually re-used.
Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) is considered a priority waste stream by the EU and harnesses great potential for reuse and recycling due to the high value of certain components. To improve resource efficiency in the sector, the re-use of waste materials in the construction industry must increase. However, the potential of using secondary raw materials is barely hardly exploited at the moment.
The sector continues to fail to implement the principles of circular economy which is why transnational cooperation is needed in order to tackle the issue. This is a common challenge for different NWE regions and requires joint coordinated approaches beyond regional borders.
The Interreg NWE Programme currently finances five projects that look at crucial aspects of the supply chain in order to replace primary raw materials with high quality recycled materials as well as to further develop new materials and goods, with a higher recycle and re-use potential.
