Automated solutions for sustainable and circular construction and demolition waste management

A suite of innovative tools, solutions and techniques to build bridges through ""bottom-up"" construction and demolition waste (CDW) prevention and handling to reach ""top-down"" European waste reduction goals is proposed.

The project's agenda reflects the HORIZON-CL4-2021-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-11 call objectives, with a focus on integrated decision making that would allow considering all aspects of CDW generation and involving all stakeholders within the construction industry.

Current practices in CDW management, from prevention and minimization of waste to its reuse, will be evaluated and markets to support the supply chains and circular economies will be identified.

Consequently, a digital information management system for stakeholders' collaboration and waste traceability will be developed, tested and demonstrated.

It is envisaged that the CDW minimization will be achieved by empowering BIM and integrating waste management relevant data into the information models.

Processes of converting different formats of construction information to the digital twins will be automated, as well as the decision-making system for repurposing, deconstruction and demolition. Automation will be employed for AI-assisted CDW classification and robotic segregation off-site.

The methodology for CDW logistics in regard to the automatic and more efficient CDW sorting and distribution will be proposed, along with methodologies to provide new added-value uses to CDW.

The consortium involves 7 research institutions, 10 small to medium enterprises, 5 large companies and 1 association, representing 5 EU countries, UK and China. The feasibility and efficiency of the developed solutions will be evaluated using 6 demonstrators.

This consortium composition will enable us to tackle the whole life-cycle CDW management, propose beyond-state-of-the-art technologies, and contribute to reaching the zero-waste construction industry in Europe in the near future.