Page 7 - Open-Access-Jan-2020

point of view

in waste prevention and management legislation and policy: (visual or noise screening); covering landfills (final restoration of
(a) prevention; (b) preparing for re-use; (c) recycling; (d) other the landfill once the landfill is closed, capped and sealed).
recovery, energy recovery; and (e) disposal.
‘Backfilling’ allows most EU countries to declare recovery rate
The Article 6 End-of-waste status of the WFD which concerns that is already higher than the WFD target. While ‘backfilling’
CDW, when recovered or recycled: ‘Certain specified waste may result in savings on extracted materials that would be
shall cease to be waste within the meaning of point (1) of otherwise backfilled, it reduces the potential value that can be
Article 3 when it has undergone a recovery, including recycling, recovered from CDW if they are recycled as new construction
operation and complies with specific criteria to be developed in materials.
accordance with the following conditions: (a) the substance or
object is commonly used for specific purposes; (b) a market or Since 2018, with the revision of the WFD , new provisions have
18
demand exists for such a substance or object; (c) the substance been introduced which concern CDW and which were already
or object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific identified as key best practices in the EU Construction and
purposes and meets the existing legislation and standards Demolition Waste Management Protocol (see section 2.2):
applicable to products; and (d) the use of the substance
or object will not lead to overall adverse environmental or l Clarification on definition and scope of concepts such as
human health impacts. The criteria shall include limit values non-hazardous waste, construction and demolition waste,
for pollutants where necessary and shall take into account any material recovery, backfilling among other concepts are
possible adverse environmental effects of the substance or required;
object.’ l Measures to be taken by EU countries to:

At last, Article 11 Re-use and recycling, assigns the 70% re-  prevent waste generation by reducing waste
use, recycling, recovery target by 2020 for CDW: ‘In order to generation in processes related to industrial
comply with the objectives of this Directive, and move towards production, extraction of minerals and construction
a European recycling society with a high level of resource and demolition, taking into account best available
efficiency, EU countries shall take the necessary measures techniques;
designed to achieve the following targets: by 2020, the
preparing for re-use, recycling and other material recovery,  promote selective demolition in order to enable
including backfilling operations using waste to substitute other removal and safe handling of hazardous substances
and facilitate re-use and high-quality recycling by
materials, of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste selective removal of materials, and to ensure the
excluding naturally occurring material defined in category 17 05 establishment of sorting systems for construction and
04 in the list of waste shall be increased to a minimum of 70 %
by weight.’ demolition waste at least for wood, mineral fractions
(concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramics, stones), metal,
Up to now, the EU countries have been including the volumes glass, plastic and plaster;
used for backfilling into the calculation of their national CDW l Criteria to determine when a product ceases to be a waste
recovery target. The term ‘backfilling’ was defined later in and becomes a new product again after recovery and
2011 , and more specified in 2018 with the revision of the treatment could be developed for aggregates.
16
WFD : In Art. 3 (17)(a) ‘backfilling’ means any recovery operation
17
where suitable non-hazardous waste is used for purposes of At last, the Commission shall consider whether it will set targets
reclamation in excavated areas or for engineering purposes in for the preparing for re-use and recycling of construction and
landscaping. Waste used for backfilling must substitute non- demolition waste and its specific fractions by the end of 2024.
waste materials, be suitable for the aforementioned purposes,
and be limited to the amount strictly necessary to achieve those 3.2 Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy
purposes.
in Construction
In practice, ‘backfilling’ encompasses various purposes: In 2012, the Commission released its ‘Strategy for the
reclamation of excavated areas in construction; reclamation of sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and its
excavated areas in mines and quarries; landscape engineering enterprises’ . This comprehensive strategy associates resource
19

16 Commission Decision 2011/753/EU, https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a5a9f4ad-9348-427c-8939-7fe1e948886f
17 Directive (EU) 2018/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Text with EEA
relevance), https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32018L0851
18 Directive (EU)2018/851 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste
19 Communication COM(2012)433final ‘Strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and its enterprises’

The IndIan ConCreTe Journal | JanuarY 2020 11