Overview of RECONMATIC
The construction sector stands as the predominant consumer of mineral and other finite resources within the UK and European Union.
As of 2018, a substantial 35.7% of the EU's total waste output was attributed to this industry, primarily stemming from construction and demolition endeavours. This figure is even higher for the UK, with the construction industry accounting for a staggering 48.8% of total waste.
Despite a multitude of initiatives striving to address construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the prevalent practice of landfilling still persists.
In order to address this issue, there are two main steps we can take:
First, we should try to use fewer materials that eventually become waste during construction. This means better, more efficient design of buildings to reduce the amount of materials used.
Secondly, we need to find better ways to deal with the waste we do create. This means finding solutions to ensure that waste so that we can use some of it again, and making sure it's good quality.
Solutions to these problems should be something that everyone involved in making and managing construction waste can easily agree on and use.
These solutions are essential to meet the forthcoming EU objective of elevated C&D waste recovery (which the European Commission is expected to define in 2024 or beyond) and, crucially, to attain a zero C&D waste status by 2050.
Such an ambitious undertaking embodies the core mission of the RECONMATIC project, seamlessly aligning with the directives of the EU Waste Framework (European Commission, 2019) and the Circular Economy Action Plan (European Union, 2020).
RECONMATIC's mission is to seamlessly integrate life-cycle C&D waste management into all stages of building processes. This involves introducing automation and digital tools to enhance communication and information sharing among stakeholders.
The goal is to proactively minimise waste generation, promote material reuse and recycling, and optimise decision-making. RECONMATIC focuses on refining sorting methods for cleaner material streams in C&D waste, suggesting automation strategies for better waste processing logistics, and increasing waste valorisation through technical solutions.
Ultimately, the project strives to efficiently manage construction processes to prevent and reduce waste.
The RECONMATIC consortium brings together 23 partners from 7 countries across the UK, EU and China, specifically chosen to cover the whole value chain for demonstrating innovative solutions in lifecycle C&D waste management.
It targets close cooperation links to be established and maintained for these solutions between EU, United Kingdom and China creating technological synergies tackling similar strategic aims of both markets in C&D waste minimisation and circular construction sector with common approaches. With their industry leading expertise, the selected partners involved in RECONMATIC are forerunners in their particular working fields in the construction industry (design, construction, refurbishment, and deconstruction/demolition), waste treatment services, digital technologies, robotics and research & innovation.
In the next section, you can learn a bit more about Morgan Sindall, its Work Package 2 partners University of Salford, BIMBox and STRABAG - all of whom are closely linked in developing a Materials Data Bank to support the RECONMATIC initiative.
The RECONMATIC initiative is delivered over a series of seven work packages. The graphic below details the outputs of each work package, highlighting Morgan Sindall's input. Most of our work is delivered under Work Package 2, which we will explore in greater detail in our next edition.
The importance of the RECONMATIC initiative is perfectly summarised in the UN Development Programme Campaign - Don't Chose Extinction
The world spends an astounding US$423 billion annually to subsidise fossil fuels for consumers – oil, electricity that is generated by the burning of other fossil fuels, gas, and coal. This is four times the amount being called for to help poor countries tackle the climate crisis.
The UNDP's Don’t Choose Extinction campaign features a collective intelligence platform, the Global Mindpool, to help tackle the most important issues of our time.
Linking insights from around the world - on the climate emergency, the crisis in nature and inequality – the Global Mindpool will support UNDP to better inform and equip policy makers in government, civil society, and the private sector.
Source: UN Development Programme (UNDP)
