Circular Construction: Opportunities and Threats

The construction industry is one of the largest consumers of raw materials. Very little of the wastes generated from its activities are recycled or reused constituting a major concern for the environment. Common construction processes in most developing countries follows a linear concept of “take-make-use-dispose”: a fragmented process resulting in inefficient use of resources. The circular economy (CE) concept of “take-make-use-regenerate” aims at zero waste of materials, and efficient use and reuse of resources. CE principles include reduce, reuse, and recycle and their adoption within the construction sector has been encouraged by researchers, policy makers, government and non-governmental organisations. Numerous opportunities accrue when the CE concept is applied to the construction industry. This paper introduces circular construction (CC) as the integration of CE into the construction industry. It identifies opportunities and threats for CC across the sector. Opportunities were categorised into economic, social, environmental and technological while threats were professionals, clients, government and industry. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory research
design where data were derived from an analysis of secondary sources through a review of literature. In conclusion, the paper recommends the adoption of CC especially at the design phase, and deconstruction rather than demolition.