Construction and demolition waste in Central Finland

Construction and demolition waste has attracted attention in Finland and Europe during recent years. Growing interest towards construction and demolition waste is due to its’ huge amounts and recycling targets that aim to increase recycling rates of construction waste among other waste streams.

Construction and demolition waste is the biggest waste stream in Central Finland, however the majority is soil from construction sites. The importance of construction and demolition waste has been acknowledged in Central Finland, and it is one of the four focus areas in Central Finland’s Circwaste roadmap.

CIRCWASTE is a seven-year LIFE IP project that promotes efficient use of material flows, waste prevention and new waste and resource management concepts. The project is coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute. Regional Council of Central Finland coordinates the Cirwaste work in Central Finland and collaborates with regional stakeholder as well as with other Circwaste regions.

In 2018 Regional Council of Central Finland did a report about present state of waste management in the region. One of the topics in this report was construction and demolition waste. The report shows that Central Finland produces construction waste approximately 1 080 000 t/y. 10 % of this waste is produced by housebuilding sector. Content of the housebuilding waste varies between sites, the biggest waste components being mineral waste (such as concrete and bricks) and wood waste. Currently, most of the wood waste goes to incineration, so waste is utilized for energy purposes but not for material re-use. A work towards material recovery, instead of energy recovery, is continuous in Central Finland.

In 2020, the Regional Council of Central Finland organized and co-organized several stakeholder events as part of Circwaste project. For instance, these events included a workshop focused on improved practices to recycle and re-use wood pallets and info session about “Materiaalitori”, that is a platform intended for the professional exchange of waste and production side streams from companies and organisations. The platform also allows searching for and offering related services, such as waste management and specialist services. Additionally, Regional Council of Central Finland was co-organizing a regional webinar about new, improved methods of managing demolition waste.

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Report: Present state of waste management in Central Finland 2018 (in Finnish): https://keskisuomi.fi/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/10/C.17_1_wasteamounts.pdf

Circwaste website: https://www.materiaalitkiertoon.fi/en-US

Regional Council of Central Finland’s Circwaste website: https://keskisuomi.fi/biotalous/circwaste-kohti-kiertotaloutta/ Available in Finnish

Regional Council of Central Finland in English: https://keskisuomi.fi/en/