High-quality recycled materials in EU needs more work, warns EQAR
European Quality Association of Recycling says meeting key C&D recycling targets by 2020 is way off the mark
ACCORDING to the European Quality Association of Recycling (EQAR), to meet the European Commission target of achieving a recycled utilization rate of 70% for all mineral wastes by 2020, intensified efforts will have to be made. Only by practicable regulations and a resolute use of recycled construction materials, the rate may be increased in EU member states, thereby protecting valuable natural resources.
These were some of the issues discussed at the Association’s recently held technical committee meeting in Bozen, Italy, where representatives from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and the UK, gathered to emphasize the increasing use of recycled construction materials and supporting the sustainability of natural raw materials.
The member associations of EQAR also highlighted the growing need for EU standardization and recognition of quality-assured recycled materials as acceptable construction products.
Martin Car, chairman of the EQAR technical committee and general manager of the Austrian Construction Materials Recycling Association, said: ‘The product status for recycled construction materials is indispensable for increasing the acceptance and reaching high building material recycling rates. Unfortunately, there is an extremely heterogeneous picture with regards to the recognition of quality-controlled recycled construction materials as products in EU member states.’
The next EQAR technical meeting is scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, on 22 March 2018, and topics, such as the Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol, will be discussed.
Also on the agenda will be new EU legal regulations that demand all wastes should not show a potential ecotoxicity when being utilized, while the Association will continue to push forward a set of harmonized construction products standards for recycled materials on a European level.
