The amount of construction waste accumulated due to the hostilities reaches hundreds of thousands of tons. This waste takes up space in both legal and illegal landfills, exceeding the amount of household waste due to its large size and weight.
Such waste contains numerous fractions, many of which are suitable for recycling and reuse in construction or industry. Some parts of this waste contain toxic components that pose a threat to air, soil, and groundwater. The Ministry of Environment estimates environmental damage from land contamination at over UAH 900 billion
Prior to the outbreak of large-scale hostilities, the government did not prioritize waste recycling, and 95% of solid waste was going to landfills. Today, the significant increase in waste volumes brings national security issues to the forefront. Due to Russian aggression, the largest volumes of garbage are currently in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions. At the same time, determining the exact amount of waste in Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a more difficult task.
Kyiv region alone has accumulated 185 thousand tons of waste. This waste includes components such as concrete, bricks, tiles, ceramics, wood, glass, plastic, insulation materials and building materials containing asbestos.
According to the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, almost 50% of all construction waste is taken to landfills, and these are not always landfills for construction waste.
Usually, before demolishing a building, specialists carefully study the amount, types and composition of building materials used in construction, and the demolition itself is carried out in stages, sorting them separately from each other. This improves the quality of recycling and reduces the likelihood of harmful substances entering the finished materials produced from this waste.
For example, a five-story building with an area of more than 4000 square meters generates more than 8973 tons of construction waste during demolition:
- Brick — 3 900 tons;
- Reinforced concrete — 4 400 tons;
- Concrete — 600 tons;
- Metal — 30 tons;
- Wood — 21 ton;
- Glass — 22 tons.
However, it should be noted that construction waste resulting from the destruction caused by explosions and shelling differs from “classical” waste, as it consists of residues of materials of different structure and origin, which makes it difficult to recycle.
All the structural elements, materials and objects that were in a residential, industrial or public building are uncontrollably mixed and deformed by the explosion, making it very important to separate the toxic material particles from other waste. Such hazardous building materials include, for example, asbestos slate, which is often used for roofing, and if it cannot be separated from other materials, all waste will have to be buried at a landfill.
Recycling of construction waste
Recycling of construction materials is widely used in many countries around the world, and we also have positive experience. One good example of reusing construction waste based on the principle of a closed-loop economy is a project in Gostomel implemented by the French company Neo-Eco. The company managed to achieve a 90% recycling rate, with only 10% of construction waste going to landfill.
According to Ukraine Resilience, concrete and bricks were recycled into small fractions, metal and wooden parts into chipboard panels, plaster into drywall, and glass and PVC were divided into calcine, aluminum and PVC. An initiative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency in the Irpin community could also be productive. It involves recycling household waste in a special apparatus using high-temperature steam. This technology can help both recycle and reduce the volume of construction waste, namely, concrete.
The list of reuse is not limited to these examples: Recycled concrete can be used as a raw material for the production of coarse and fine aggregates, bricks can be used as a raw material for drainage cushions, wood can be used as fuel briquettes, papercrete (lightweight concrete) or as a secondary material and energy resource for cement production, glass can be used as a powdered aggregate for the production of concrete products and dry building mixtures, fiberglass and plastic can be used as secondary raw materials for polymer products or petroleum products. Metals such as copper, bronze and brass can be reused as secondary raw materials for metallurgical production.
Recycling industry enterprises
Ukraine already has enterprises that can recycle various construction materials. For example, Metinvest, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro Metallurgical Plants are engaged in metal recycling.
Glass is recycled by Region-2001, Vetropack and UtilVtorProm. Сoncrete — by Tsaris, TekhBudMekhanika, Agropromyslova Grupa, Tereshchenko Group of Companies and Orga. Plastics are produced by Ekola, TIS, Region-2001, The Good Plastic Company, and bricks by Actis Group, Forest Ukraine, and UtilVtorProm. Wood is usually processed at state forestry enterprises located in each region of Ukraine.
As can be seen, the technology of building new houses from recycled materials is not new even for Ukraine.
Therefore, we need to think about increasing industrial capacity and purchasing or leasing special equipment today. The solution to this issue depends on the political will of legislators, because as long as the cost of burying construction materials remains a cheap option, the desire to sort and recycle construction waste, and even more so to invest in expensive equipment, will be quite low.
Global experience in the construction waste recycling industry
With the right approach and on-site sorting, recycling and reuse of construction waste will have enormous potential. There are illustrative examples in global practice: in Japan, the basis for artificial islands is created from garbage ash.
Another recent case is the construction of a village for the 2024 Olympic Games in the Paris region. Concrete aggregates and recycled products (windows, wooden beams, bricks, heating appliances) were used in the implementation.
Ukraine should make every effort to not only solve the problem of construction waste, but also to generate profit from it.
The following points can be proposed for implementation at the state level to address the issue of recycling construction waste in Ukraine:
- Development of a national strategy for construction waste recycling.
- Introduction of legislative changes that encourage the use and recycling of secondary materials.
- Creation of state and regional programs for financing waste recycling projects.
- Training and certification of waste management professionals.
- Development of infrastructure for the collection and sorting of construction waste.
- Support for initiatives and projects that use recycled materials in construction.
- Such actions will help reduce the burden on the environment and contribute to the sustainable development of urban space.
Considering all of the examples above, we can conclude that construction waste recycling has significant potential for development. It can solve not only environmental problems, but also become a source of efficient use of available resources, open up new business opportunities and create a market for secondary building materials. The path to success lies in cooperation between businesses, government agencies and international financial institutions, which will certainly be involved in Ukraine's reconstruction, to create a transparent legislative and legal framework that will form the basis for a sustainable and effective system of cooperation.
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