Vademecum for companies: questions and answers, to the most common doubts about construction and demolition waste.
Waste generated by construction and maintenance activities is among those for which abandonment is expressly prohibited. It is therefore necessary to know the operations that characterize the life cycle of waste and its management. Below we offer concise and concrete answers to questions that, on a daily basis, construction companies have to face.
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What are the construction and demolition materials?
In most cases, these are scraps deriving from the processing of materials and components, of wrappers or packaging of the same, from excavation residues polluted by hazardous substances, from water resulting from processing. This waste largely belongs to the Commission classification 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000 and corresponds to the waste included in EWC chapter 17. These are the main types with their CER code:
- CER 170101 cement;
- EWC 70302 bituminous mixtures other than those referred to in EWC 170301;
- EWC 170405 iron and steel;
- EWC 170504 earth and rocks, other than those referred to in the EWC 170503;
- EWC 170904 mixed waste from construction and demolition activities, other than EWC 170901, EWC 170902 and EWC 170903.
How should this waste be treated?
Construction and demolition waste is special waste (art.184, c.3, letter b). Consequently, specific phases must be carried out:
Identification, with subsequent assignment of the EWC code
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Moving waste to temporary storage without mixing
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Transport (carried out on its own or entrusted to third parties) of the same to the waste treatment plant
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Final disposal: recovery (with simplified or ordinary procedure) or disposal
What is selective demolition? Am I obliged to take care of it?
Selective demolition is the first operation aimed at recovering construction and demolition residues. It is carried out to sort and separate waste, in order to prepare it for recovery. The most appropriate methods for selective demolition vary depending on the space available on the construction site, how the building was built, the place where the construction site is located with respect to waste, etc. In any case, the DGRV reference directive no. 1773 of 28/08/2012, a resolution of the Veneto Regional Council, identifies the correct phases of selective demolition, which are essentially three:
- Preliminary investigation;
- preliminary demolition actions;
- demolition.
But is this a mandatory operation?
The plan for the deconstruction of complex products and selective demolition is mandatory (with the exception of public construction CAMs, which are not required to carry out this activity).
Is it worth creating a waste management plan and what do I have to enter?
The waste management plan makes it possible to verify the entire process of waste creation and recovery and to know if it is carried out in a convenient way, both from an environmental and economic point of view. With this plan, the timing of the demolition activities is organized and an assessment is made of the presumed amount of waste generated by the work, but also of what types of waste will be produced, with the relative CER code. Finally, it allows you to keep an eye on costs and better understand costs for selective demolition and gains from material recovery and lost costs related to landfill.
Temporary storage. Temporal or quantitative criterion: which one to choose?
The one that is most in line with your needs. In fact, the legislation leaves the producer free choice in this regard, as long as the temporary storage of a given waste does not last more than one year. In any case, remember that:
- The temporary storage must have an impermeable support surface and that liquid waste is stored in containment systems suitable for avoiding spills.
- The signs must be present: the hazard pictograms, for example, must facilitate operators in the recognition of waste together with the labels and posters of the CER codes, with a summary description of the waste.
Do I have to record non-hazardous waste in the register?
The reference legislation provides that companies that produce construction and demolition waste are not obliged to include non-hazardous waste in the Loading and Unloading register, but only hazardous waste (Articles 184 and 190 of Legislative Decree 152/06).
Can I entrust the transport to the disposal/recovery of my construction and demolition waste?
Yes. As long as the company to which the waste is delivered is registered in the Register of Environmental Managers in categories 4 (for non-hazardous waste) and 5 (for hazardous waste). ATTENTION: it is the producer who, after filling in the FIR, must verify that the third-party transporter and the destination plant have the specific authorization relating to the waste delivered.
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Is the screening of inert waste considered a recovery activity?
It is a treatment. An activity such as the screening of construction waste and demolition of the residues still present on the construction site must be subject to the acquisition of the authorization to carry out the performance by the territorially competent authority.
