Characterising existing buildings as material banks (E-BAMB) to enable component reuse

Abstract

As-built records for existing buildings tend to be poor. Components that make up the existing building stock must be better characterised to prevent them becoming waste. The first record of materials in an existing building is often the waste report, which classifies materials for waste management and gathers information after the opportunity for higher-value reuse of components has passed. Policy at various levels aims to increase reuse, but an understanding of ‘existing buildings as material banks’ (E-BAMB) is a necessary precursor to overcoming other barriers. This paper reviews the current means of understanding E-BAMB and identifies its shortfalls. This analysis leads to the conception of a strategy in which the various approaches are organised as an information system. The future role of technology and mandatory provision of E-BAMB information at the planning stage are explored. The proposed system would enable specifiers, manufacturers and academics to assess the wealth of materials that can be reused, repurposed or upcycled in new projects or businesses. This does not guarantee that actual reuse will occur, as financial, technical and legal barriers may remain. However, it creates the context for assessing secondary components against their virgin equivalents and the enabling conditions for new circular business models.

Blockchain Practices, Potentials, and Perspectives in Greening Supply Chains

“…One especially cogent application, not typically considered, is the exchange of construction waste from the construction supply chain. In the construction case, there is a strong argument for 'buildings as material banks', which can be effectively managed through blockchains and the Internet [41,42]. More on this issue in terms of traceability and verification are described in the reverse logistics discussion.…”

Archetypical CBMs in Construction and a Translation to Industrialized Manufacture

“…Constructs with the same essence with slightly different spelling, such as "industrial symbiosis" and "Industrialized symbioses", are interpreted as the same element in the dataset. This resulted in Set A including 79 unique elements as presented in Table A1 in Appendix A [2,3,6,7,9,19,22,29,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45].…”

Cross-Laminated Secondary Timber: Experimental Testing and Modelling the Effect of Defects and Reduced Feedstock Properties

“…Physical production of specimens in the UCL laboratory highlighted no fundamental constraints on the principle of upcycling secondary timber into CLST. Feedstock was easily sourced through existing reuse infrastructure; to support viable CLST manufacturing plants, this would need to develop holistically as a system comprising information about materials soon to emerge from demolition activities, procurement, reclamation and consolidation [16,24]. Although trimming reduced yield considerably, in real-world practice, lamella thickness could be designed to optimise yield from the available feedstock.…”

“…They may retain their mechanical characteristics [15], but are typically sold 'as seen' and without warranties, failing to provide certainty over supply and fitness for purpose, which restricts demand from mainstream construction [16].Improving the supply of secondary timber to the construction industry could mitigate future risks, including increased competition for the use of land [17], price rises if timber supply is curtailed while demand rises [18], and future planning requirements, contractual obligations and regulation of whole-life greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [19][20][21][22][23]. However, to capitalise on residual timber performance, there is a need for new processes that upcycle secondary timber, and recertify the resulting products to meet mainstream construction industry requirements [16,24].This research proposed to exploit secondary timber as a feedstock for cross-laminated timber (CLT). The use of CLT has grown considerably in recent years; its advantages are well understood in academia, and it is gaining acceptance across industry [25].…”

“…Improving the supply of secondary timber to the construction industry could mitigate future risks, including increased competition for the use of land [17], price rises if timber supply is curtailed while demand rises [18], and future planning requirements, contractual obligations and regulation of whole-life greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [19][20][21][22][23]. However, to capitalise on residual timber performance, there is a need for new processes that upcycle secondary timber, and recertify the resulting products to meet mainstream construction industry requirements [16,24].…”