circwaste.fi
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The circular economy of earth construction means making use of materials as close as possible to their final location of use and in as valuable a structure as possible to replace virgin raw materials.
The circular economy of earth construction saves valuable natural resources circular economy in earth construction must already be observed when the • The procurement decision is made, in the project’s procurement criteria. use of recycled materials in earth construction requires more cooperation • Successful than conventional construction. At its best, soil mass coordination brings significant economic and environmental savings for earth construction. This requires cooperation between land use planning, design, construction and maintenance.
materials must be used safely and in an environmentally friendly manner. • Recycled The use of alternative construction solutions and recycled materials must always be considered on a project-by-project basis.
material surveys must be prepared carefully in each project. The surveys • Recovered take into account alternative structural solutions and the availability and storage of materials. It is possible to carry out the survey to different extents at different planning stages or to specify it as the planning stages progress.
• CircBrief – kiertotalouden best practices of parhaita circularkäytäntöjä economy ••May toukokuu 2022 • 2022 •
Soils must be used sustainably Land and soil are limited resources and should be used with care. Soil provides services that are important to people: it recycles water, carbon and nutrients, and it decomposes and filters pollutants. Soil extraction has a significant impact on soil functions and reduces the ecological and landscape value. In 2020, 123 million tonnes of soil were used in Finland. According to waste statistics, a total of 16 million tonnes of soil waste was generated in 2019, of which nearly 12 million tonnes came from construction and 3 million tonnes from mineral extraction. The EU Soil Strategy for 2030 proposes to enhance the safe, sustainable and circular use of excavated soils. The circular economy of earth construction means making use of materials as close as possible to their final location of use and in as valuable a structure as possible to replace virgin raw materials. Soil material is not dumped in lower-value sites if the material is technically usable even in a more demanding structure. When the transport distances of soil and rock masses are sufficiently short, the use of alternative materials is also economically viable. Sensible soil and rock mass management can also reduce climate emissions.
With soil mass coordination, materials are recycled smartly The use of surplus and demolition materials between construction projects requires soil mass coordination. This refers to the quantitative and qualitative monitoring, control and forecasting of mass flows. The aim of soil mass coordination is primarily to direct the surplus masses directly between construction sites, but places for processing, intermediate storage and disposal of surplus materials are also needed. At its best, soil mass coordination brings significant economic and environmental savings for earth construction. Successful soil mass coordination requires cooperation between land use planning, design, construction and maintenance. In Turku, the task is handled by the city’s coordinator in charge of aggregate and soil masses.
Regional cooperation to improve the efficiency of soil use Public actors have traditionally implemented soil mass coordination within the city or project. In the Turku region, soil mass coordination has been expanded to include the regional waste management company Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH Oy). The company is responsible, among other things, for the closure of old landfills, which require large amounts of different soil and recovered materials. Through cooperation, the surplus masses of the city can be utilized advantageously not only in the city’s own projects, but also in LSJH Oy’s projects, and the need for the disposal of the masses is reduced. At the same time, the procurement of the soil and recovered materials needed by LSJH Oy will be clarified, allowing for significant cost savings. Cooperation between the City of Turku and LSJH Oy is coordinated by a working group chaired by the soil mass coordinator. The City of Turku and Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH Oy) jointly own the affiliated company Kiertomaa Oy, which is responsible for the operational activities of mass management.
At the beginning of a project, there is usually not enough data to explore alternative design solutions. As planning progresses, more data will be available, but the number of design solutions will decrease as the design solutions are determined in more detail. Examining some of the alternatives may already be too late at this point if, for example, the storage of recycled material has not been started in time. Timely studies and comparisons of recycled material options can promote the use of recycled materials in road construction. • CircBrief• –CircBrief kiertotalouden – best practices parhaitaof käytäntöjä circular economy • Tähän Julkaisun • CircBriefpääotsikko – best practices tähänofJulkaisun circular economy pääotsikko • May • toukokuu 2022 • 2022 •
Examples of the circular economy of earth construction Turku’s Saramäki material terminal Kiertomaa Oy has developed the recycling of surplus soil and rock and the production of recovered materials in the Saramäki material terminal in Turku. Every year, the City of Turku generates around 200,000–300,000 tonnes of surplus soil and rock through its infrastructure construction. Some of the surplus materials are transported directly from the construction site to another site for use. For processing or intermediate storage, Kiertomaa Oy receives surplus soil and rock and materials from demolition. Surplus soil can, for example, be sifted or crushed to a suitable size for a variety of needs. This saves fuel, virgin materials and their procurement costs. For instance, in the Saramäki material terminal a demolished concrete school building is crushed and utilized in street construction. Surplus clay is reused in the sealing structure of a landfill and excavated soils are reused in the surface structure of a landfill. Going forward, up to 250,000 tonnes of recovered and surplus materials can be reused annually in the use locations of surplus and dredged materials operated by Kiertomaa. In addition, raked waste from the maintenance of greenspaces can be composted and used to produce recycled substrates for urban construction.
Recovered materials in pedestrian and bicycle traffic route structures in Riihimäki In the Uusimaa ELY Centre’s project, a five-kilometer pedestrian and bicycle route was built in Riihimäki, which utilized waste incineration slag as recovered material. The slag was obtained from Fortum’s waste incineration plant, which is located only 10–15 kilometers from the construction site. The location made it possible to have good logistical connections for the transport of the recovered material. The site utilized 660 tonnes of slag and also nearly 17,000 tons of crushed concrete, replacing approximately 25,000 tonnes of virgin crushed rock. Before being placed in the road structure, the slag underwent a cleaning process in which the metal was recovered and only the more mineral-rich mass of the slag was recovered for use. Efforts are being made to find applications for waste incineration slag, which will no longer be dumped in landfills. Based on the results of the Riihimäki construction site, slag can continue to be used in similar structures. However, it must always be found out exactly where in the road structure the recovered material can be used in order to ensure that the structure meets the requirements set for it in the long term.
The Saramäki material terminal will be developed so that the majority of the surplus masses can be utilized in the construction projects of Kiertomaa Oy’s owners in the future. • CircBrief• –CircBrief kiertotalouden – best practices parhaitaof käytäntöjä circular economy • Tähän Julkaisun • CircBriefpääotsikko – best practices tähänofJulkaisun circular economy pääotsikko • May • toukokuu 2022 • 2022 •
Filling Sampaanalanlahti in Rauma Ramboll utilizes the waste and contaminated sediments generated in an industrial area in filling Sampaanalanlahti in Rauma. In total, 93,000 tonnes of dredged clay, 60,000 tonnes of ash and 70 tonnes of kaolin clay were used for the filling and mass stabilization of the B basin in Sampaanalanlahti. The amount of cement used for mass stabilization could even be halved compared to the situation where industrial waste would not have been used at all. The production of cement, which is traditionally used as a binder, accounts for over 90% of the carbon dioxide emissions from foundation reinforcement during stabilization. The need for cement could be minimized by utilizing the fly ash from the nearby paper mill and bioenergy plant. Careful planning and scheduling were key factors in the project. Climate emissions and costs were saved when soil and binders were obtained from nearby, no new deposit sites had to be established for dredged materials and no industrial waste had to be transported to the landfill site.
CircBrief – best practices of circular economy:
The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency has started the assessment of the technical suitability of different recycled materials. Suitability is assessed on a material and construction component basis and can be done in general or on a project basis. Once the material has general approval, a project-specific process will no longer be needed and the use of alternative materials in following locations will be accelerated.
The circular economy of earth construction saves valuable natural resources May 2022 Writers: Marjo Koivulahti, Ramboll, Antti Kuosmanen, Kiertomaa, Teija Haavisto, SYKE ja Hanna Savolahti, SYKE References:
1 Material accounts, Material Requirements by Materialgroup https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PXWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__kanma/ statfin_kanma_pxt_11i4.px 2 Waste generation in 2015–2019 disaggregated by EU statistical waste classification, https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/ StatFin/StatFin__jate/statfin_jate_pxt_003.px/ 3 Report of alternative materials for road and railway planning projects, Research reports of the Finnish Transport Agency 6/2018 https://julkaisut.vayla.fi/pdf8/lts_2018-06_vaylasuunnittelun_ uusiomateriaaliselvitykset_web.pdf 4 Handbook of Recycled Materials in Urban Infrastructure https://www.uusiomaarakentaminen.fi/sites/default/files/ Uusiomateriaalit%20kaupunkien%20infrarakentamisessakasikirja%202019_07_02%20-%20UUMA3.pdf#overlay-context=uu siomateriaalirakentaminen-ohjejulkaisuja 5 Uusiomateriaalit tierakenteissa. Väyläviraston oppaita XX/202X (draft) Circwaste 6 Uusiomateriaalien käyttö väylärakentamisessa. Väyläviraston ohjeita 20/2022. 7 Uusiomateriaalit väyläsuunnittelussa. Selvitysluonnos 29.4.2022 (unpublished) Circwaste 8 Data bank and logistics terminal for recyclable soil https://www. materiaalitkiertoon.fi/en-US/Circwaste/Subprojects_by_area/ Southwest_Finland/Data_bank_and_logistics_terminal_for_ rec(51065) 9 Utilizing industrial waste and soil in road construction https:// www.materiaalitkiertoon.fi/en-US/Circwaste/Subprojects_by_ area/Southwest_Finland/Utilizing_industrial_waste_and_soil_ in_r(51072) 10 Safe reuse of contaminated soil https://www.materiaalitkiertoon. fi/en-US/Circwaste/Subprojects_by_area/Southwest_Finland/Safe_ reuse_of_contaminated_soil(51070) 11 In Maapaikka.fi website you can search for information about surplus materials in the vicinity and their locations, as well as submit purchase, sales and location notices. Cover photo: AdobeStock Illustrations: Anna Polkutie Layout: Satu Turtiainen / SYKE, Anna Polkutie Communication specialist: Hannele Ahponen Helsinki 05/2022
LIFE15 IPE FI 004 Tämän Circwaste-project julkaisun tuottamiseen receives on saatu financial support rahoitusta Euroopan fromunionin EU for LIFE-ohjelmasta. the production Sisältö of its materials. edustaa ainoastaan The Circwaste-hankkeen views reflected withinnäkemyksiä the ja contents EU:n komissio are entirely ei ole vastuussa the project’s tämän ownjulkaisun and thesisältämän EU commission ismahdollisesta informaation not responsible käytöstä. for any use of them.
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