TU Berlin is looking for floor plans for a new recycling concept! Help us!

TU Berlin is looking for floor plans for a new recycling concept! Help us!

The Technical University of Berlin has launched a call to collect floor plans of single-family homes, apartment buildings and non-residential buildings created between 2015 and 2025. The aim is to estimate the amount of insulation material waste that will arise in the future and to develop recycling strategies. Tanja Broszies, research assistant at the TU Berlin, emphasizes that there are currently no reliable statistics about the insulation material used. Although the federal government publishes the newly built area annually, it remains unclear how much insulation material is actually used.

Currently, most of the insulation materials resulting from demolition work end up in incineration or landfill without being recycled. By analyzing at least 90 different building floor plans, the university wants to create a statistically reliable picture of the current situation. Floor plans of single-family homes are particularly of interest, as many of these buildings are privately owned. It is also emphasized that all information is anonymized and stored under strict data protection guidelines.

The need for recycling and the ecological balance of insulation materials

Over 50% of the waste generated in Germany comes from construction and demolition waste. The volume of insulation materials being demolished is expected to increase in the coming years. Previous research projects show that the transport costs for insulation materials are crucial for the implementation of recycling strategies. The TU Berlin is therefore striving to develop a forecast model for future volumes of insulation waste. Further information on submitting floor plans can be found on the TU Berlin website: tu.berlin/go232123.

An important aspect in the discussion about insulation materials is their ecological balance. Certain materials perform better here than others. According to a study, wood fiber blown insulation as well as hemp and jute mats are the best insulation alternatives. Cellulose blown insulation materials, HBCD-free polystyrene boards (EPS) and wood fiber mats take second place, while other insulation materials such as PU and XPS boards rank behind them. The processing of wood fiber insulation panels and foam glass panels is particularly energy-intensive and has a negative impact on their ecological balance.

Future prospects and challenges

The challenge with recycling old insulation materials is that the majority of them are still contaminated with HBCD. The CreaSolV® process from the Fraunhofer Institute offers a way to separate and recycle contaminated EPS, but has so far only been used on a small scale. Instead of being sent to waste incineration plants, old insulation materials should be recycled in order to reduce resource consumption and improve the ecological balance. However, the prerequisite for this is recycling-friendly constructions without a mix of materials and inseparable connections.

Reforming disposal strategies for insulation materials is crucial for sustainable construction and the environmentally friendly handling of construction site waste. In this context, the TU Berlin initiative is of great importance in order to collect comprehensive data and information at an early stage, which could ultimately help to advance the circular economy in construction and significantly reduce the ecological footprint of new buildings.