Waste reduction final report -4 - Test Input

2. Benchmark data
More than 3/4 of total waste produced in Switzerland originates from construction
engineering. It emerges in all life cycle stages of a construction. The title of this report is
“Construction Waste in Switzerland”, or, if expanded, “Construction Related Waste in
Switzerland”. However, it would be impossible to consider all waste being generated – e.g.
when producing metals or carpets abroad or when considering all materials replaced in
renewal activities.
Data on construction waste are available mainly for the biggest flows of materials in terms of
volume and quantity, e.g. gravel, concrete, asphalt or bricking. Sure enough, compared to
other materials used (mainly in house building), such as ceramics, electricity installation,
floorings or carpets, the above mentioned account for much higher amounts in volume and
weight. However, in many constructions, the “small” materials hold a certain importance and
should not be neglected. As data for those materials are hardly available, this leads
unavoidably to a certain selection bias in this context. Still, the materials above go into each
building and don’t have a long life time. In the end, sustainable handling of construction
(waste) materials has to incorporate all flows in construction!
Please note that there are no thorough statistics on construction waste in Switzerland. Data
listed here mainly originates from modelling done by engineering consultants for the FOEN,
once between 1998 and 2001 and newly modelled in 2008. These figures therefore have to be
taken as indicative. Out of the modelling in 2001, a publication resulted [FOEN 2001],
whereas the latest data has not been published [FOEN 2008c]. Whenever possible, data from
2008 has been used.
Waste types
This section deals with the waste which is emerging in construction engineering and the
treatments that are possible in Switzerland. As in the previous chapters, the materials mainly
dealt with are mineral materials. Firstly, these are the materials most used in construction in
view of quantity and volume. Secondly, Swiss modelling in recent years focussed on these
materials and therefore most data are available in this group.
The first modelling of construction waste in 2001 estimated a annual amount of 11 MT of
construction waste in Switzerland. Because of higher demolition activities, they modelled this
figure to increase by 40% in house building and by 3% in civil engineering (up to 14.5 Mio. t
per year) until 2010 [FOEN 2001]. Latest estimates give a value of about 15 MT of waste per
year, which is about three times more than municipal waste produced per year [FOEN
2008c]. In these figures, the excavation material is not included. The amount of the latter is
estimated to be 60-80 MT [FSO 2005]. The rise in construction waste since 1997 is more or
less due to the house building sector. In civil engineering, the infrastructure is mainly built so
that activities in the future will mostly consist in waste-poor maintenance work.
Figure 7 shows results of latest waste modelling in Switzerland by the FOEN. Note: There is
0.13 MT of asphalt waste from house building, which is difficult to identify in the figure.
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