Construction & Demolition Waste: Definitions & Management

Posted on Sep 25, 2024 in Geology

Construction & Demolition Waste

Definitions and Categories

According to Law 10/1998 on waste, waste is defined as any substance or object belonging to categories listed in the Act’s annex and discarded or intended for discard by the holder. The European Waste Catalogue (EWC) provides further categorization.

Waste Categories (Law 10/1998):

  • Q1: Production or consumption not specified below.
  • Q2: Substandard products.
  • Q3: Expired products.
  • Q4: Accidentally spilled or contaminated materials.
  • Q5: Materials soiled due to planned actions (e.g., cleaning residues).
  • Q6: Unused elements (e.g., reject batteries).
  • Q7: Substances no longer performing satisfactorily (e.g., contaminated solvents).
  • Q8: Industrial process residues (e.g., slags).
  • Q9: Pollution abatement residues (e.g., spent filters).
  • Q10: Machining/finishing residues (e.g., lathe turnings).
  • Q11: Residues from raw material extraction (e.g., mining waste).
  • Q12: Adulterated materials (e.g., PCB-contaminated oils).
  • Q13: Prohibited materials.
  • Q14: Discarded items (e.g., from homes, offices).
  • Q15: Materials from contaminated soil regeneration.
  • Q16: Materials not included in the above categories.

Directive 2006/12/EC and Order MAM/304/2002, along with the EWC, provide further definitions and guidelines on waste management.

Key Definitions

Producer of Construction and Demolition Waste:

  1. The individual or entity with planning permission for construction or demolition. For works not requiring permission, the owner of the property.
  2. The individual or entity processing or mixing waste, altering its nature or composition.
  3. The importer or purchaser of such waste within the EU.

Owner of Construction and Demolition Waste: The individual or entity possessing the waste but not acting as a waste manager. This includes builders, subcontractors, and freelancers involved in the construction or demolition.

Preparation: Physical, thermal, chemical, or biological processing (including sorting) that changes waste characteristics to reduce volume or hazardous nature, facilitate handling, or improve recovery potential.

Manager: The entity (public or private) performing waste management operations.

Management: Collection, storage, transport, recovery, and disposal of waste, including monitoring and site supervision.

Prevention: Measures to prevent waste generation or reduce its amount and hazardous content.

Reuse: Using a product for its original purpose.

Recycling: Transforming waste within a production process for its original or other purposes (excluding energy recovery incineration).

Recovery: Any procedure enabling resource use from waste without endangering health or the environment.

Disposal: Waste disposal or destruction (total or partial) without endangering health or the environment.

Collection: Gathering, sorting, grouping, and preparing waste for transport.

Selective Collection: Separate collection of organic and recyclable materials.

Storage: Temporary storage of waste before recovery or disposal (less than two years, or six months for hazardous waste).