NRW on the Path to a Circular Economy

Why Dismantling Must Be the Foundation of the Strategy

North Rhine-Westphalia has the potential to become the hub of Europe’s circular economy. As part of the current online consultation by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment, the German Demolition Association (DA) has therefore submitted its position. Our key message: a successful “Circular Economy Strategy” for NRW needs objectives that enable robust loops in the construction and infrastructure sector – and that reliably safeguard implementation in real projects.

From the DA’s perspective, success depends above all on four factors: investment-friendly framework conditions, a reliably growing market (market ramp-up) for secondary raw materials and reused components, practical standards along the entire process chain – and a much stronger anchoring of dismantling expertise in vocational training and university education. Because dismantling plays a key role in the circular economy, encompassing hazardous-substance remediation, demolition, reuse, and recycling.

Investment Security Through Reliability

If companies are expected to invest in selective dismantling, sorting, processing, quality assurance, and the necessary logistics, land, and plant infrastructure, the framework conditions must be viable and consistent in the long term. A circular economy in construction requires secured and high-performing capacities: mineral material flows must be processed in consistently reliable quality; at the same time, structures are needed for the disassembly, testing, storage, and provision of reusable components.

Such capacities will only emerge if requirements for usability, verification, and quality assurance are transparent, stable, and reliable over extended periods. Secondary raw materials and second-life products must not be disadvantaged in practice by inconsistent requirements, shifting assessment criteria, or disproportionate documentation obligations. The goal must be to make high-quality recovery and reuse the norm – easy to implement and economically attractive – so that investments in technology, personnel, and capacities are triggered.

The Market Lever: The Public Sector

A second central area is demand development – and the consistent use of the public sector as a market lever. Public clients are key market actors in NRW and can create reliable demand through procurement practices and enable economies of scale. From the DA’s point of view, the use of recycled construction materials and second-life materials – where technically suitable – should be systematically preferred and not treated as an exception in relevant product groups.

Secondary raw materials should always be given preference when they are available locally in sufficient quantities and are technically equivalent to primary raw materials. This requires practical quality and application standards that ensure comparability and usability in planning, tendering, and construction execution. Standardized service specifications and tender modules are also helpful: they can reflect circular alternatives in a legally robust way while keeping the effort manageable for procurement bodies and bidders.

Equally important is consistently life-cycle-oriented procurement: if life-cycle costs, CO₂ impacts, and resource aspects are taken into account, the economic advantages of circular solutions become visible in procurement procedures – rather than being overshadowed by pure acquisition costs.

“Design for Deconstruction” as a Planning Principle

Circularity is not determined only at the dismantling stage; it is largely defined in design and execution. That is why dismantling-friendly planning (“Design for Deconstruction”) is of particular importance as a systematic principle – ideally embedded already in project development.

The goal should be to design new-build and refurbishment projects so that later disassembly, separation, and reuse remain technically feasible and economically reasonable. This includes reversible instead of irreversible connections, reducing permanently inseparable composite constructions, modular and standardized building methods, and robust documentation of the products and materials used. This becomes practically effective when public projects incorporate such requirements as binding elements in service specifications, planning contracts, and evaluation matrices – for example, via requirements for disassemblability, separability of material layers, and mandatory material and dismantling concepts.

A particularly relevant practical example is external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS) and comparable insulation constructions: insulation materials are often permanently bonded or integrated, meaning a clean separation by material type is regularly not possible during dismantling. This results in mixed fractions and significantly reduces the possibilities for high-quality recovery or reuse. Dismantling-friendly planning should therefore take stronger account of selecting and executing insulation materials in a way that allows later separation – such as defined separation layers, reversible fastening solutions, or constructive alternatives that enable later layer separation. At the same time, it must be identifiable or documented at the time of dismantling whether and how a system can be disassembled. This improves material-flow quality, the predictability of processing, and the usability in the second life cycle.

Monitoring That Helps – Not Burdens

To make the use of recycled and second-life materials more predictable and transparent in practice, the DA supports steering via clear criteria and practical verification pathways. This is explicitly not about rigid quotas, but about systematically facilitating and promoting use wherever materials are available in sufficient, reliable quality. Barriers – such as those affecting the use of suitable RC materials – should be removed without introducing additional reporting duties or verification requirements that primarily add bureaucracy.

Suitable indicators could include, for example: the use of recyclates in public construction projects by product group, the share of high-quality recovery of mineral construction and demolition materials, the share of projects with dismantling and material concepts, and the use of reused components in public projects. In addition, indicators on the availability of quality-assured secondary materials and the development of the necessary capacities (e.g., processing and interim storage infrastructure) can reflect implementation capability.

Skilled Workers for the Construction Transition

Circular dismantling is highly technological and a key phase of functioning circular processes – yet it is still not systematically covered in vocational training and university education with the breadth and depth required. The DA therefore calls for dismantling, remediation, and demolition to be anchored as mandatory content in initial and further training and in relevant degree programs. In addition, dual formats, practical semesters, and certificate programs can strengthen cooperation between universities, vocational schools, and industry. This increases implementation competence in projects, improves the quality of material flows, and appropriately embeds the contribution of the demolition sector as a prerequisite for circular construction within the construction industry.

Predictability Also for Nature Conservation Requirements

In implementation practice, the early integration of nature conservation requirements (species protection) is also regularly relevant. If assessments and measures are carried out late or handled differently from region to region, this can lead to noticeable delays. A predictable approach with early surveys, clear time windows, and coordinated measures can help stabilize project timelines without compromising the protection purpose.

Conclusion: Circular Economy as a Scalable System

The German Demolition Association welcomes the initiative of the state government. For the circular economy in construction in NRW to become effective as a reliable, scalable system, it requires stable investment conditions, demand-effective public procurement, dismantling-friendly planning as a standard, transparent monitoring – and a strengthened qualifications base. If these elements are brought together, North Rhine-Westphalia can effectively leverage the potential of the demolition sector and the secondary raw materials industry for circular construction and infrastructure development.