Impacts of plastics in building waste assessed
Impacts of plastics in building waste assessed
More action is needed to recycle large and growing volumes of plastic waste generated by Europe's construction and demolition (C&D) industries, the“Appricod” project, funded under the EU Life programme, has concluded. Only 6 per cent of the nearly 1m tonnes of plastic C&D waste generated in the EU in 2003 was recycled, Apricod showed. The rest was landfilled or incinerated with limited energy recovery.
Plastics currently account for only 1-2 per cent of total C&D waste by weight, but volumes are expected to grow steadily. In 2004 the construction industry consumed 8.7m tones of plastics – half of it PVC – in applications like pipes, ducts and window frames. The Apricod project highlighted poor knowledge within Europe's C&D sector of the opportunities,costs and requirements for recycling plastic waste. Recycling rates could be increased, and this would have knock on benefits for recycling of other C&D waste streams, the researchers concluded. Achieving sustainability will require the construction, waste management and recycling industries to work together to raise awareness of the relatively complex process of plastics recovery, believe the partners.
Local authorities can support the process by developing facilities for waste collection, sorting and recycling, which must be flexible according to industry's needs. EU and national authorities were urged to harmonise landfill and incineration taxes to encourage recycling and to create a “level European playing field”.
Further, details on the project and the results of the study are available at: www.appricod.org/
