Lumber was loaded onto a trailer at a wood storage in Helsinki in August 2021. Finland is seeking to achieve a recycling rate of 70 per cent for construction and demolition waste by 2027, after postponing the target by seven years due to lack of progress between 2018 and 2021, reports YLE. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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FINLAND has pushed back its goal of achieving a recycling rate of 70 per cent for construction and demolition waste from 2020 to 2027, after seeing only a three-percentage-point increase to 57 per cent between 2018 and 2021, reports YLE.
The goal was adopted under the waste framework directive of the EU.
“There are big regional differences in Finland, but some municipalities have reached their targets – even exceeded them,” Hanna Salmenperä, a senior adviser at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), told YLE on Tuesday.
An excellent recycling rate was achieved, for example, in the demolition of a block of flats in Mäntsälä, Central Finland.
“Ninety-nine per cent of the material was utilised, but the actual recycling rate, meaning the share of concrete and steel, was 96 per cent of the project. There was also energy waste that was suitable for burning. It isn’t granted recycled status, but it could be utilised,” recounted Jarno Salminen, the managing director of Maansiirto Harry Mäkelä.
Asbestos made up most of the waste that was landfilled as part of the demolition project.
The family-owned earth-moving company has adopted a front-loaded approach to raising the recycling rate in part because contractors that fail to reach the 70-per-cent rate are disqualified from projects by the City of Jyväskylä.
Circular economy targets for demolition projects have been raised across Europe. The European Commission defines a circular economy as a system that maintains the value of products, materials and re
Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
