When approaching the process of recycling building materials, there are a number of obstacles to achieving a comprehensive and effective result. First, careless demolition can make the process very complex, as products with different recycling products are often mixed. In addition, not all materials can be efficiently recycled or processed, as many still need expensive or overly complex processes. But the construction industry, being a huge contributor to waste production and greenhouse gas emissions, has also developed multiple new technologies to improve its practices. This is the case of the WOOL2LOOP project, which seeks to solve one of the biggest challenges in applying a circular approach to construction and demolition waste.
One example of the unexplored possibilities of circularity is mineral wool. These are fibrous materials formed by the spinning or extracting of minerals or molten rocks, such as slag and ceramics. They work as excellent thermal and acoustic insulators, as they have an extremely low density. For this same reason, they can also become a problem during demolition, as they take up significant space in landfills; they are very light, but highly voluminous. As mentioned in this article, “In Europe, around 2.5 million tonnes of mineral wool waste are generated each year in construction and demolition. Currently, mineral wool waste is almost entirely deposited in landfills, resulting in an annual cost of around €250 million for the construction sector.”
