Waste reduction final report -4 - Test Input

In this chapter, an overview on Swiss construction activities as well as on flows and stock
estimates was established. Switzerland is a small country and space for construction activities
as well as for landfills is scarce. A peak in house building was reached between 1961 and
1975 with 60 Mm3 (115 MT) of new constructions per year on average. But still, new
constructions hold most expenditure, especially in house building. Swiss underground
constructions are mainly built or planned; the demolition rate will remain more or less
constant in future.
Gravel is the most used material in construction engineering. Gravel stocks in Switzerland are
huge, but exploitability is lowered by different constraints. Besides gravel, concrete is the
most important construction material. In house building, its fraction has been rising over the
last century. The two materials are dominating civil engineering, too. More than half of all
materials are stocked in road networks.
We will now focus on waste emerging from the construction sector.
Legislation and legal binding guidelines/standards
This chapter intends to give an overview on construction waste related laws and standards in
Switzerland. After a short description of the legal structure, underlying laws for handling
construction waste are presented. Coincidentally, some notions will be clarified with the help
of definitions given in laws, regulations and standards. A short discussion on possibilities of
the federal state to influence construction waste handling will be hold in the end of this
chapter. In this sections, parts of the CIB report 318 (section Switzerland) have been restated
[CIB 2008].
Switzerland consists of 26 federal states named “cantons” all of which have their own
constitution, parliament, government and courts. The political system is therefore
decentralised with a lively direct democracy. The National Government consists of the
bicameral parliament (legislative), the Federal Council (executive) and the Federal Court
(judicial). Switzerland does not belong to the European Union (EU), but has signed many
agreements with the EU and its states. The National Government is responsible for issuing
laws while their execution lies in the responsibility of the cantons. Additionally the states and
municipalities have their own more specific laws and regulations on waste management,
whereas national law has more power than these laws. The Federal Office for the
Environment FOEN tries to standardise the application by issuing numerous guidelines. In
addition private organizations such as the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects
(SIA) issued standards, which partly have an obligatory character.
Legislation
In this section, a short description of the current laws concerning construction waste
management and important articles is given. Please consult the annex for the wording of the
mentioned articles in the Swiss legislation (several parts only in German). Swiss laws and
regulations are available in the four national languages 26 on www.admin.ch in the classified
compilation of federal legislation. Please note that selected legal texts exist in English.
Legal status
26 German, French, Italian, Romansh
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