FCRBE

Today in NW-Europe, only 1% of building elements are reused following their first application. Although a large number of elements are technically reusable, they end up being recycled by crushing or melting, or disposed. The FCRBE project aims to foster the roll-out of reuse practices by the construction industry in Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, set a framework for insuring reused materials and develop a harmonised method to help project managers and policy makers to set and measure reuse objectives.

Right now the flow of recirculated goods stagnates and may even decrease due to a lack of structured efforts. This capitalisation project as part of the extension of this INTERREG project​​​​​​​ sets up an international partnership rooted in earlier initiatives that were successfully initiated on a local level.

Included in the project now are new key players in adopting reuse practices: small and medium-sized construction sector enterprises and organisations assessing the quality of the works.

The project will reach more specifically two types of stakeholders. One type is SMEs of tradesmen in charge of the building works as they can effectively contribute to the development of reuse activities, by salvaging and reusing building materials more systematically. The other type is insurers and related organisations. They can help to set up a framework in line with reuse specificities and unlock a recurring issue. 

Some activities carried out in the original FCRBE project have evidenced that reuse is feasible in many different contexts. However, they also revealed a need for a method to set clear ambitions, monitoring their implementation and reporting on achieved results. This capitalisation project will be an opportunity to propose a coherent method to do so and have it adopted by project managers and public organisations.