EuRIC adds C&D materials branch

The Brussels-based European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) has launched a Construction and Demolition branch to represent European recyclers’ interests and to “evaluate and contribute to the implementation of the EU’s Green Deal and Industrial Strategy by promoting a circular economy approach.”

“The Construction and Demolition branch is the seventh branch of EuRIC,” EuRIC Secretary General Emmanuel Katrakis says. “It is launched at a time where construction and demolition waste as a stream is under intense scrutiny by policymakers at EU and member state(s) level.” (The organization’s other branches focus on ferrous metal, nonferrous metal, paper, plastic, textiles and tires.)

EuRIC says the construction sector accounts for 10 percent of the total value added in the EU economy and as a driver of economic growth, employing around 25 million people and representing some 5 million companies.

Citing the European Commission, EuRIC says construction also is one of the most resource intensive sectors, generating 30 percent of the EU’s annual discarded materials and 9.4 percent of its total carbon footprint.

For European recyclers, it is a key sector for achieving the EU’s climate neutrality objective and it requires a more sustainable use of construction materials, which cannot be achieved without increased recycling, the organization adds.

“EuRIC looks forward to working with all concerned stakeholders to boost circularity across the sector,” Katrakis says, adding that the new branch will advocate for the full application of circular economy principles in the construction sector by incentivizing the use of circular construction materials and leveling the playing field with extracted raw materials.

The recycling organization says its advocacy will focus on the setting up of a proper EU regulatory framework that boosts the recycling of discarded construction and demolition materials in the construction sector and beyond, plus green procurement, standardization that supports the use of circular materials and products, and potentially mandatory recycled content in construction products.