On Tuesday, November 12, BUILD UP hosted the final webinar of the series of six webinars that have been organised with the COST Action project CircularB with the title 'Stakeholder Webinar Series – Deconstruction and Demolition Teams & Waste Management Industry'.

The webinar started with Jan Pešta, Scientific Researcher at the University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings of the Technical University in Prague. Pešta delved into the steps to organise a pre-demolition audit and maximise the circular potential of materials from buildings. ‘A crucial document issued on the matter is the EU Taxonomy. The EU Taxonomy mentions specific criteria, the Do Not Significantly Harm (DNSH), which defines the minimum expectations regarding the sustainability of buildings. Among the DNSH criteria we find pre-demolition audits’, commented Pešta.  

During the second session, Leva Konaté, Account Executive at Pretty Plastic, presented how plastic waste can be upcycled and transformed into durable tiles. ‘Pretty Plastic tiles are a sustainable cladding material that repurposes discarded building materials. The innovative production process ensures that the tiles are crafted from 100% recycled materials’, said Konaté.

In the final panel, Jonas Breidenbach, a Research Fellow at the University College of London (UCL), presented the CascadeUp pilot. ‘CascadeUp is the first building-scale demonstration of a glued and cross-laminated timber structure made entirely from waste wood sourced from demolition’, concluded Breidenbach.