Circular economy in construction: a review of existing policies, strategies and standards in Scotland and Europe.

Victoria, Michele; Chawla, Vishakha

Abstract

The built environment (that includes all the constructed artificial structures like buildings and infrastructure) is essential for the economic development of a country. The demolition of assets at the end of their useful life cycle generates large volumes of construction and demolition (C&D) wastes that negatively impacts the environment. The traditional approach in construction follows a "take-make-use-dispose" approach wherein these generated C&D wastes are disposed into landfills. The circular economy (CE) approach on the other hand follows a “make-use-collect-transform-reuse” approach wherein the generated C&D wastes are reused and recycled for future construction projects. The increase in human population has resulted in an increased demand for construction projects. Furthermore, extracting virgin raw materials and manufacturing them into building materials for construction projects leads to environmental degradation. The utilisation of C&D wastes for these projects not only reduces the consumption of virgin raw materials but also reduces the carbon emissions associated with their manufacturing. Though these generated C&D wastes have high potential for reuse and recycle, only 40% of these are utilised again through the incorporation of CE principles. Policies, strategies and standards play a very crucial role for ensuring that CE principles are adopted in a building throughout their entire life cycle. This paper contributes to literature by reviewing the CE policies, strategies and standards in Scotland and Europe to aid in identifying their similarities, differences, and lessons that can be learnt to increase circularity integration in the construction sector. The analysis reveals that while the policies in Scotland focus on reuse of wastes, the policies in Europe focus on recycling. While reuse and recycling are integral to promote CE, a truly CE will not be achieved by only these two practices, and other practices like recover and redesign also need to be considered.

Citation

VICTORIA, M. and CHAWLA, V. 2025. Circular economy in construction: a review of existing policies, strategies and standards in Scotland and Europe. In Kouider, T. and Galiano Garrigós, A. (eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): buildings fit for climate change, 15-17 May 2025, Alicante, Spain. San Vicente del Raspeig: Universidad de Alicante [online], pages 37-52. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154562

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): building fit for climate change
• Start Date: May 15, 2025
• End Date: May 17, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 10, 2025
• Publication Date: May 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jun 13, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 13, 2025
• Publisher: Universidad de Alicante
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 37-52
• ISBN: 9788413023182
• Keywords: Built environment; Circular economy; Construction; Policies; Strategies; Standards
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2486956
• Additional Information: The full proceedings of this conference is available from http://rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/154489
• External URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154562
• Other Repo URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154562