New Circular Economy Business Model for More Sustainable Urban Construction
European construction sector generates about 9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the European Union and directly employs 18 million people being one of the most important industries of the European economy. At the same time, it is one of Europe's biggest consumers of resources that uses about half of all materials extracted and also generates one third of all EU waste. Construction and demolition waste (CDW) together with waste from industry, municipal services and others, can make excellent secondary raw materials (SRM) for construction works and thus provide an enormous potential for reducing the demand for virgin materials, the production of waste, and maximizing the value of recovered materials.
The CINDERELA project aims to untap this potential by developing and demonstrating a new business model (CinderCEBM) to assist companies in setting up successful circular economy business cases based on waste-to-resource opportunities. The business model will be accompanied by a "one-stop-shop" (CinderOSS) service offering all that companies need to know for manufacturing and application of SRM-based construction materials in buildings and civil engineering works.