Circular building products, a case study of soft barriers in design for remanufacturing

The building industry contributes approximately 40% of the total waste generated in the European Union (EU). Across the EU a shift towards closing product loops, as part of a transition towards a circular economy, is considered as a promising approach to reduce waste and pollution. Remanufacturing is an example of a strategy which supports this approach. It is applied in various industries that are intensive materials users. It has, however, not been applied in the building sector on a large scale. This is unfortunate, given that buildings offer several favorable key conditions for remanufacturing, such as providing access to high volumes of products, containing high material value, at fixed locations. This paper aims to analyse the human, soft issues for design for remanufacturing at the design stage of products used in the built environment. The methodology used consisted of a literature review followed by a workshop with twenty professionals from the building industry. The workshop approach was developed in a series of EU funded projects. The paper concludes by proposing that, even though the technical barriers to remanufacture building products are low, the soft barriers in the shift towards remanufacturing, on a larger scale, appear to remain high.