The economics of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management facilities

This chapter gives an overview on key issues related to cost factors and economics of the construction and demolition waste (C&DW) recycling industry, in a broader context of sustainability and resource efficiency. It starts from a brief discussion on current and recent debate on resources and waste management at the European level and from the definition of Sustainable Supply Mix (SSM). The focus turns on drivers and barriers to the integration between primary production of aggregates (i.e. quarrying) and C&DW recycling towards SSM and to the achievement of the 70% recycling target set by the Europe 2020 strategy. Costs and economic aspects are discussed with emphasis on available technologies for recycling in order to assure the technical quality of recycled aggregates. The last section is dedicated to cost factors that can be ascribed to the end of waste criteria implementation.