Reuse of Secondary Materials: Enabling and Assessing

By Neha Gupta

Enabling and Assessing ‘Reuse of Secondary Materials’ as a Circular Approach for the Facade Industry

Over the years, the extraction and consumption of raw materials have increased radically, with a 60% increase since 1980. About one-fifth of the material extracted worldwide ends up as waste per year. The Netherlands government introduced the ‘Circular Netherlands in 2050’ plan in 2016 to tackle the problem. As a result, 95% of the secondary materials from the end-of-service-life demolition process of residential and non-residential buildings in the Netherlands are recycled. However, comparing different R-option on an R-hierarchy model shows a gradual decrease in value retention with recycling. The research focuses on shifting the facade industry from recycling to reuse to retain a higher material value.

Research Question | How can secondary materials from construction and demolition processes be reused in the facade industry? Can a reuse process contribute to create a circular value and reduce negative environmental impacts for facades?

Research Outcome | Reuse of secondary materials for the same function is feasible through R-strategies of direct reuse, repair, refurbish, and remanufacture as long as the embodied value of the material does not change. For this, it is essential to match the demand and supply of secondary materials. The original material suppliers must take up the role of material resellers in the market. At the same time, manufacturers and architects need to shift their mindset from use of abundant to ‘scarce’ resources by altering the design process with the three stages of material sourcing, material processing, and material reuse. The proposed hybrid system using the primary and secondary material stream presented a 60% restorative material flow with the MCI score and a saving of 91% for embodied energy and 93% for Global Warming Potential with LCIA with reuse of steel mullions in the curtain wall facade.

Hybrid mullion using primary and secondary stream