Scaling the circular economy in built environment: the urban mining

The built environment uses almost 40% of the products of the various industrial supply chains, produces almost 50% of total national waste, but it is also the sector whose real estate assets have an average duration longer than consumer goods. The enormous potential for the application of circularity is therefore evident both in terms of the size of the impact and the diversification of strategies: from the reuse of buildings and their components to the recycling of building materials. However, the fragmentation of the construction supply chain makes the implementation of circular processes in the built environment more complex than in industrial manufacturing processes. 
To promote greater circularity in the sector, it is necessary to implement: recovery processes that ensure the quality of the component and/or material for its reuse, regulations that allow the construction site to be treated as a production site and above all a planning capacity on a city scale in order to benefit from economies of scale related to size. 
The "Urban Mining" approach, the city that becomes a mine, connects different actors and production processes, promoting circular synergies between different sectors and activating a symbiosis that is the basis of circularity. 
During the meeting, the current regulatory context, opportunities and technologies to support the implementation of Urban Mining models will be analyzed.

Session chairs

Marco Caffi, Green Building Council Italy
Gianmarco Revel, Marche Polytechnic University

Program

10.30 Introduction by the Chairs

10.40 The built environment in the Italian National Strategy for the Circular Economy
Representative of Ministry of Environment and Energy Security

11.00 The Circular Economy Strategy at City Level
Michele Stefini, Head of the Environment and Ecology Department of the Municipality of Bergamo

11.20 The Role of Urban Mining in the Supply of Critical Raw Materials
Roberta De Carolis, Representative of ICESP (Italian Circular Economy Stakholder Platform)

11.40 The Built Environment as a Material Mine for the Construction Industry – The End of Waste of Construction and Demolition Waste
Dominik Campanella - CEO e Co-founder di Concular (TBC)

12.00 Italian experience of Collection and Recycling of inert materials from Construction and Demolition
Speaker, RIME 1 (TBD)

12.20 Talk from Ecomondo Company

12.30 Closing