The Role of Demolition Process in Increasing the Recovery of Construction and Demolition Waste

As using natural resources is unsustainable practice for our planet, reaching circular econ-
omy has been discussed more and more around the Globe. In Europe, the EU has laid
down a target level of 70 % for recovery of construction and demolition waste (CDW) that
should be fulfilled by the member states during the year 2020. However, according to the
statistics, this level has not yet been reached in Finland. The aim of this thesis is to study
the demolition process and how it could be developed in order to improve the recovery of
generated CDW materials. Most of the work was done as desk study, where statistics, leg-
islation, previous studies, and guidebooks were studied. In addition to this, six experts
from the different areas on the sector were interviewed. A case study on a building to be
demolished was also done.

Current situation of CDW management is presented in the thesis. Thesis also briefly dis-
cusses the challenges on the sector concerning achieving material efficiency. Some cur-
rent instruments used in Finland for guiding sector towards circular economy are pre-
sented, as well as some instruments from countries that have reached the target level for
recovery. Most important waste fractions generated in construction and demolition are
introduced in the thesis. These are, concrete, wood, metal, plastic, glass, gypsum, mineral
wool, bituminous felt wastes. For these, current practices for recovery are presented to-
gether with potential methods in the future. Thesis presents instructions for demolition
processes, that are based on the guidebooks published by the Finnish Ministry of Envi-
ronment in the Fall of 2019. Instructions go through entire demolition process and con-
centrates mainly on the actions for achieving material efficiency.

In the case study, estimation on amounts of waste materials to be generated in a demoli-
tion project was done. Total amount of waste generated in the project was estimated to be
59 900 tons, which of over 97 % was concrete. Based on the estimations, simplified emis-
sion calculations were done. According to the results, 12 060 tCO2-eq of emissions in total
of emissions caused by material manufacturing would have been generated if the building
would have been constructed today. According to further calculations, it is possible, for
example, to reduce direct CO2 emissions by nearly 60 % if concrete crush is used to replace
virgin aggregates in earthworks.