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Optimizing the use of plastic materials from Walloon buildings for material and environmental innovation
Summary
Researchers assessed the potential for recycling and reusing plastic materials from buildings in the Wallonia region of Belgium, finding significant gaps in data availability and barriers including policy shortfalls, quality control challenges, and economic feasibility concerns that hinder integration of recycled plastics into circular construction practices.
The construction industry is one of the largest consumers of plastic materials, contributing significantly to global plastic waste and CO₂ emissions. This study focuses on optimizing the recycling and reuse of plastic materials in Walloon buildings, contributing to circular economic practices by proposing concrete solutions. Wallonia, through its circular strategies, aims to utilize recycled plastics as an alternative to virgin raw materials in construction, addressing both material scarcity and environmental impacts. The research is conducted in different phases: starting with a comprehensive literature review and the identification of the barriers to recycling plastics in construction, including policy gaps and technical challenges; the second concerns the assessment of plastic deposits in buildings within the Borinage region, providing a detailed and reproducible methodology using GIS-based mapping, material flow analysis, and lifecycle assessment to evaluate recycling potential. Preliminary results show a lack of data on plastic waste in buildings and significant challenges in policy, quality control, and economic feasibility. Future work will explore the techno-economic feasibility of energy recovery from plastic waste and its integration into sustainable building practices in Wallonia.