Panel 1
Costanza Mariotta
Waste from construction and demolition operations constitute, in absolute terms, the most significant flow of Waste from Economic Activities produced at both a European and national level. The construction sector, through the intense use of natural resources, generates strong impacts on the territory and a progressive impoverishment of the raw material due to the opening of natural aggregate quarries. The European Commission has, therefore, considered it a priority to monitor the flow of waste from construction and demolition activities by setting, in Article 11 of Directive 2008/98/EC on waste, a specific objective of preparation for the reuse, recycling and other types of recovery of material, including reclamation operations that use waste to replace other materials. In 2023, the recovery and recycling rate of construction and demolition waste stands at 81%, above the 70% target set for 2020 by Directive 2008/98/EC.
The indicator provides the quantity of non-hazardous Waste from Economic Activities deriving from construction and demolition operations, identified by chapter 17 of the Annex to Decision 2000/532/EC, excluding earth and rocks from excavation and dredging materials, sent for preparation for reuse, recycling and other types of material recovery. The information base is made up of the environmental declarations (MUD) presented annually by the obliged entities pursuant to art. 189 of Legislative Decree 152/2006. According to the objective verification method, identified with Decision 2011/753/EU, the calculation of the recovery rate must be carried out with respect to the quantities of waste generated by construction and demolition activities. In the absence of the obligation to make a MUD declaration for producers, the production of waste generated by construction and demolition operations, relating only to chapter 17 of the European Waste List, is quantified using a specific estimation methodology which involves the use of the information contained in the MUD database relating to the management operations carried out on the waste of the aforementioned chapter 17.
Monitoring of the objective set by Directive 2008/98/EC relating to waste, where in art. 11, paragraph 2, letter b), the objective of preparation for the reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery of material, excluding material in its natural state referred to in entry 170504 of the European Waste List (soil and rocks, other than those referred to in entry 170503), is identified, set at 70% by 2020.
Directive 2008/98/EC relating to waste.
Decision 2011/753/EU establishing rules and calculation methods to verify compliance with the objectives referred to in Article 11, paragraph 2, letter b) of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.
In order to move towards a European recycling society with a high level of resource efficiency, the European Commission deemed it necessary to include the waste flow generated by the construction sector among the priority ones to be monitored, setting, in Article 11 of Directive 2008/98/EC, a specific preparation objective for the reuse, recycling and other types of material recovery, including reclamation operations that use waste to replace other materials. The objective, set at 70%, must be achieved by 2020 and was introduced into national law under article 181 of Legislative Decree no. 152/2006. In this regard, it should be noted that Directive 2018/851/EU (part of the so-called circular economy package ) has inserted the new point 6 to the aforementioned article 11 of Directive 2008/98/EC, which has provided, by
on 31 December 2024, the evaluation by the Commission regarding the introduction of objectives regarding
preparation for the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste and related fractions
specific material. The calculation methods that Member States can adopt to verify the achievement of the objective set by the European directive have been identified by Decision 2011/753/EU.
Panel 2
ISPRA, Waste from Economic Activities Report, 2017-2025 Editions ISPRA, Waste from Economic Activities Report - 2014 Edition
Improve information on construction and demolition waste treatment processes to assess the quality of recycled aggregates produced.
Data quality assessment
Use the information contained in the database of annual environmental declarations (MUD) carried out by obliged entities under current legislation (not accessible to the public).
National
2010-2023
Indicator assessment
The calculation methods that Member States can adopt to verify the achievement of the objective set by the European directive have been identified by Decision 2011/753/EU. As regards waste from construction and demolition operations, the methodology indicated in Annex III defines the recovery rate of construction and demolition waste as the ratio between the " recovered quantity of construction and demolition waste ” and the “ total quantity of construction and demolition waste produced ". All processing was conducted at the single code level of the European Waste List. For the purposes of calculating the recovery rate, it is assumed that the annual production of non-hazardous waste from construction and demolition operations (denominator of the formula envisaged in the calculation methodology of Decision 2011/753/EC) is equivalent to the quantity of construction and demolition waste sent for recovery or disposal, excluding the quantities of waste subjected to intermediate management operations in order to avoid duplication of data (preliminary treatment operations, such as chemical, physical, biological treatment and reconditioning. Information relating to the production of construction and demolition waste is transmitted in accordance with Regulation 2150/2002/EC on waste statistics and includes:
“ a) waste produced by section F of the NACE Rev.2 code as cited in Annex I, section 2, of the same regulation:
06.1 – Ferrous metal waste
06.2 – Non-ferrous metal waste
06.3 – Mixed metal waste
07.01 – Glass waste
07.4 – Plastic waste
07.4 – Wooden waste
b) the total of the waste category (of all economic activities):
12.1 – Mineral waste from construction and demolition in accordance with Annex III of the aforementioned regulation ”.
To calculate the quantities recovered, following the remediation of the MUD database, the quantities of waste listed in Annex III to the aforementioned Decision 2011/753/EU sent for recovery operations are taken into consideration (R3, R4, R5, R12), with the exclusion of the quantities of waste imported and recovered in Italy. In detail, the recovered quantities of waste from construction and demolition operations are transmitted by including exclusively the following codes of chapter 17 of the annex to Decision 2000/532/EC: 170101, 170102, 170103, 170107, 170201, 170202, 170203, 170302, 170401, 170402, 170403, 170404, 170405, 170406, 170407, 170411, 170508, 170604, 170802, 170904. In calculating the objective, therefore, the quantities of earth and rocks from excavation are not taken into consideration and dredging materials. The quantity of waste used for reclamation operations must be reported separately from the quantity of waste prepared to be reused, recycled or used for other material recovery operations. For the purposes of determining the recovery rate, the quantities of waste exported from our country were considered, in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EC) no. 1013/2006 on the cross-border transport of waste, to send it to recovery/disposal operations in other EU countries and outside the EU.
From the analysis of the data, the recovery and recycling rate of construction and demolition waste in 2023 is above the objective set by Directive 2008/98/EC (70% in 2020), with 81% (Figure 1).
The recovery and recycling rate is confirmed to be growing from 2010 to 2023, going from 68.5% to 81%, exceeding the objective set by Directive 2008/98/EC (70% in 2020) already starting from 2011 (74.1%) (Figure 1).
Data
Table 1: Generation of waste from construction and demolition operations according to the coding system of Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics
ISPRA
Table 2: Preparation for reuse, recycling, and other forms of material recovery of construction and demolition waste according to the coding system of Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 on waste statistics, excluding backfilling
ISPRA
a) including quantities of waste from construction and demolition operations sent for recovery activities at landfill facilities;
b) including exports of waste from construction and demolition operations.
Figure 1: Trend in the percentage of preparation for reuse, recycling, and other forms of material recovery, excluding backfilling, of construction and demolition waste
ISPRA
Figure 2: Amount of construction and demolition waste recovered through backfilling operations (R10)
ISPRA
After the drastic decline recorded in the two-year period 2019-2020 due to the crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 saw a recovery in the construction sector, which continued in the following two years, albeit in a more limited way. It should be noted that this sector has been the subject, in recent years, of government incentives aimed at the energy requalification of buildings. These construction/renovation activities, as well as the continuation and start-up of public infrastructure works, have resulted in greater quantities of construction and demolition waste produced. In fact, there has been an increase in the quantities of waste generated by construction and demolition operations of 1.8%, corresponding to approximately 1.1 million tonnes, for an overall total at national level of over 61.6 million tonnes in 2023 (almost 60.6 million tonnes in 2022, Table 1).
The recovery of material, totaling 49.9 million tonnes, excluding backfilling operations, presents an increase of 3.3% compared to 2022, corresponding to almost 1.6 million tonnes (Table 2). For the mineral part of waste from construction and demolition operations, the main form of recovery is the transformation into fine or coarse aggregates which can be used in the production of concrete or asphalt or in road construction.
As required by article 4 of Decision 753/2011/EU, the quantity of waste used for reclamation operations is communicated separately from the quantity of waste prepared to be reused, recycled or used for other material recovery operations. In 2023, this quantity amounts to almost 359 thousand tons (78 thousand tons less than in 2022, Figure 2). Also considering the quantities used for landfill operations, the recovery rate stands at 81.6%.