Audit prior to the demolition of the "Casa de los Maestros" building in Calasparra

Organisation responsible: 

Regional Ministry for Development and Infrastructures

Dirección General Territorio y Arquitectura

Participants:

Calasparra Town Hall

Start date: May 2022

Objective:

The appropriate management of construction and demolition waste. (including correct handling of hazardous waste) may bring significant economic and environmental benefits. It can also provide benefits for the construction and recycling industry, as it boosts demand for materials recycled from construction and demolition, and makes a circular economy possible in the building sector.

The benefits of selective demolition and source separation became an essential condition with the entry into force of Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soil for a circular economy. The law in question refers to the need to classify construction waste into, at least, the following categories: wood, minerals (concrete, bricks, tiles, ceramics and stone), metals, glass, plastic and plaster, as well as components that can be reused, such as tiles, toilets or structural elements. At the same time, as of 1 January 2024, it obliges the demolition to be selective with the removal of the indicated materials.

Furthermore, the European Union, in this case through the its Construction & Demolition Waste Management Protocol 2006, in line with the principles of circularity, established the rules for managing waste effectively and sustainably, from the perspective of urban mining, and proposed that an audit be carried out prior to demolition as a key tool in the first phase of the demolition process, to facilitate and maximise the recovery of materials and components to be reused and recycled.

In this regard, the demolition of the "Casa de los Maestros" building in Calasparra which the Town Hall plans to undertake constitutes a testing ground for studying the technical and economic viability of a selective demolition process, the minimisation of environmental impacts and the positive effects of proper management of waste on the secondary raw materials market.

This pilot action will therefore contribute to increasing trust in the construction and demolition waste management process within the region, as well as trust in the quality of recycled materials originating from that activity, and it forms part of the collaboration between the Regional Ministry for Development and Infrastructure and Calasparra Town Hall.