Project title: Promotion of the Recycling of Industrial Waste and Building Rubble for the

Construction Industry - REBIRTH

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
Project title: Promotion of the Recycling of Industrial Waste and Building Rubble for the
Construction Industry - REBIRTH
Project objectives: Waste and its value as a resource are an issue which has been recently
addressed intensively in the EU. This is reflected both in the environmental strategies for future
years and in the goals set in the waste directive 2008/98/EC for waste material streams, including
construction and demolition wastes, subsequently referred to as C&D waste. C&D waste is
recognised the most voluminous waste stream in most EU countries, representing on average
roughly between 25-30 % of the total quantity of waste produced annually. This waste has a high
potential to be transformed into excellent raw materials for construction and has already been
identified as waste which could greatly benefit from the introduction of End-of-Waste criteria, also
launched by waste directive 2008/98/EC. Similarly certain inert industrial waste streams, currently
being landfilled, display properties which make them promising raw materials for construction
purposes. While some EU members already exploit both material sources, others do not, though
knowledge and good practice exist concerning waste usage as raw materials for construction
purposes. As Slovenia is one of the countries, where this usage needs to be promoted to
professionals and also the general public in order to decrease the need to landfill and to steer
common business practice towards the 2020 waste directive goal of 70% re-use, recycling and
other material recovery of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste, by weight. It is the
general objective of the project to contribute to the increased and better recycling of industrial waste
and construction/demolition waste in the construction sector. This will be promoted through open,
thoughtful, rational, timely and fact-based communication and on open dialogue, planned to raise
awareness of recycling possibilities for industrial waste and building rubble for the construction
industry at national, regional and local level. Emphasis will be on disseminating best practice
through practical demonstrations of existing technical possibilities, information on successful
administrative measures and tools, such as green public procurement, environmental taxes and
charges from other EU countries, through channels of communication open to professionals, state
and local authorities and the general public, stimulating the necessary trends towards an increase of
recycled industrial waste and building rubble and creating awareness of the beneficial use of
recycled industrial waste and building rubble in the construction industry.
Key information / messages to be passed to target audience (in compliance with EU
legislation and policy): The key information passed to target audiences is:
1. Construction and demolition, together with industrial wastes are excellent substitutes for natural
materials which are used in construction and can be even advantageous in comparison with natural
materials.
2. Waste materials are lost resources which burden the landscape through disposal either at legal
landfills or at illegal dump sites, leading to adverse effects on biodiversity and landscape
deterioration.
3. Natural resources need to be conserved. Fresh materials are being used unsustainably, leaving
dents and scars in the natural landscape, and disrupting biodiversity.
4. The technical procedures used to process C&D wastes and industrial non-hazardous waste are
well established and have been verified practically, whereas the legal requirements for waste used

as recycled material for construction products need to become more easily to understand, more
comprehensive and more compatible.
5. Successful examples of market instruments, such as green public procurement, taxes and
charges supporting material sustainability, exist and can be substantiated through life cycle
assessment.
6. The requalification of waste to raw materials is a opportunity for the development and growth of
new environmental goods and services.
These messages will be passed to target audiences through various activities promoting increased
application of the identified waste streams as sustainable construction materials. The target
audiences are construction and demolition operators, professionals working in waste recycling and
industrial facilities, local and public authorities, state, specialized, regional and local media,
secondary schools, universities and the general public. Although the goals are common, each target
audience requires a different set of information in order to contribute to shifting society to a more
sustainable future.
Actions and means involved The project activities will be conducted over a three year span as
various target groups have been determined, requiring very diverse sets of information, some of
which is extremely technical. The project will be distinguished by a unified project template design.
Networking activities have been foreseen at various levels, exploiting existing contacts as much as
possible. A new network with foreign parties will be formed consisting of representatives from other
similar projects which have been performed in other EU member countries, in order to exchange
information which could be beneficial to the outcome of the current project. A second network in the
form of a steering group will consist of additional stakeholders such as the different ministries and
their agencies (e.g. the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Finance, and
the Environmental Agency), representatives of key municipalities, industrial and recycling operators
and non-governmental organizations to keep the project on track in terms of recognised
environmental problems and suggested solutions. Steering group members will be invited to
participate/attend in every activity. The general public and municipality leaders will be targeted
through public relation activities designed specifically by Mayer McCann including a special
newsletter for mayors. Industry, waste and construction operations will be targeted by the CCIS,
ZAG and PKG. Local authorities (municipalities' officials and public environmental municipal
services) will be specifically addressed and invited to participate in all project actions of the entire
project through existing partner channels and new project communication channels as one of the
important target groups for the project's activities and for afterlife-project activities.
Due to inconsistent information on construction and demolition waste and discrepancies between
state registries and expert estimates, the latter being validated by professional studies and on-site
experience together with the fact that the most recent official data on actual quantities of C&D waste
pertain to data from 2006, a preparatory/preliminary study has been planned to form a level
informational platform before the start of the project. The aim of this study will be to compile a
detailed description of the current problem status; describe the existing national technical, legal,
administrative and marketing instruments with reference to effective good practice measures from
other EU countries. It is foreseen that the study will be able to establish a common communication
platform for the stakeholders and the project partners. Due to existing data inadequacies three
separate surveys will be sent out to industrial operators, C&D operators together with recycling
facilities, planners and local authorities. The answers obtained from the survey will also be used to
monitor the project results.
In March 2012 a plenary start - up international conference is planned. Its aim is to inform the
targeted groups of the waste to resource problem, existing best practice, technical possibilities, the
role of research and life cycle assessment, and the planned workshops. Three separate workshop
sets are envisioned taking into account the individual target groups and their specific requirements:
1. Workshops (2 repetitions) on Green Public Procurement technical details, the role of Life cycle
assessment (LCA), Product Category Rules (PCR) and Environmental Product declaration (EPD),
targeted at construction operators, industrial operators, public local, state and private procuring
authorities.
2. Workshops (4 repetitions) for the proper management of construction and demolition
waste/materials on site, targeted at C&D operators,
3. Workshops (2 repetitions) on the possible use of inert industrial waste, market requirements, and
the role of Life cycle assessment in business-to-business environmental declarations.
Knowledge and awareness will be reinforced by a "No waste here, just resources" slogan linked
to 4 demonstrative actions, which will be performed at key project intervals and global
environmental occasions such as Earth Day, Environmental Protection Day and similar days. Each

practical demonstration will present a success story where different waste types are presented as
excellent substitutes for natural materials. The demonstrations will be supplemented with the results
of Life cycle assessments to introduce the concept of life-cycle thinking as a decision tool. As
practical demonstrations are constrained to a limited number of participants, video material from the
demonstrations will be prepared following a scenario to appeal also to the less informed public and
made available free of charge on the project web site, with technical guidelines and Life cycle
assessment results. The first demonstration will demonstrate the efficient reconstruction of roads,
known as cold-recycling, using recycled on-site spent pavement and road materials, which would
otherwise be discarded. A second demonstrative action will display best practice, step-by-step
demolition activities, identification of different types of wastes and demonstration of further
down-chain processes to final construction products (e.g. concrete from recycled material, recycled
aggregate). A third demonstration will display best practice, step-by-step illegal dump clean-up
activities, and the possible application of rescued materials. A fourth demonstration will be
performed with regard to application of recycled industrial materials (steel slag) in road construction.
A small size mobile-portable exhibition will be prepared on the basis of the 3rd demonstration to
disseminate information primarily to municipalities/administrative centres, "open-house" public
events organised by C&D collecting and recycling organisations, secondary schools and technical
universities. The exhibition will be accompanied with relevant video material, a short presentation
and an additional Q&A session attended by project's technical experts. At presentations a short
simple questionnaire will be passed around to monitor awareness raising. All correctly answered
questionnaires will participate in a project raffle with awards provided by sponsors, thus motivating
participants to participate with correct answers. All activities will promote the project web page
upgraded by a portal providing on-line and off-line communication activities. The web site will be
regularly updated with project progress information, practical guidelines for C&D operators,
industrial operators, multimedia events, demonstration and LCA activities. The Interactive
web-portal will supply the contest questionnaire, Q&A interaction and a discussion forum. A special
press corner will also be provided. Monitoring of the project impact will be carried out by surveys
sent out to target groups, the contest questionnaire and simple tests after training activities. Mayer
McCann will monitor the project results via press clippings and steer media relations accordingly.
Before the end of the project the steering group will meet to become acquainted with the project
results and progress, and to plan the way forward. A pre-conference meeting/workshhop will be
organised with active stakeholders prior to the final conference in order to begin preparing an
after-life plan, which will be presented at the final conference organised in June 2014. A final
stakeholder roundtable will wrap up project activities in October 2014.
Expected results (outputs and quantified achievements): The REBIRTH project will have

a significant impact on the different domains of construction and demolition waste

and industrial waste recycling. It is expected that it will be possible to achieve a
permanent increase in the recycling rate for both C&D waste and industrial waste
during the duration of the project, i.e. up to 10 % for C&D waste and up to 15 % for
inert industrial waste by the end of the project's duration. A turn-around in illegal
dump practices, i.e. no further increase in the number of illegal dump sites with
C&D waste. It is also expected that the results of the project will ensure a long-term
national beneficial effect in the form of a constantly increasing recycling rate, with
the main goal of a 70 % recycling rate by 2020. Over the past 5 years Slovenia has
had an annual demand for approximately 20 million tonnes of mineral raw materials
for construction purposes. The recent crisis in the construction sector has lowered
this demand, but nevertheless it is expected that approximately 1.5 % of natural
materials will be saved as an impact of the project by the end of 2014. This will be
displayed through waste to raw material redistribution in industry and construction and demolition
activities. Increased awareness will be identifiable through the test answers from training activities
and the awareness raising contest in targets groups.