{"id":1036,"date":"2026-05-22T09:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2026-05-26T16:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T16:01:13","slug":"eu-circular-economy-act-risks-promoting-hazardous-waste-in-construction-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/22\/eu-circular-economy-act-risks-promoting-hazardous-waste-in-construction-report-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Circular Economy Act risks promoting hazardous waste in construction, report warns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u00a0<\/div>\n

\"Construction\"<\/h4>\n

A new report from Zero Waste Europe warns the EU Circular Economy Act risks entrenching the use of hazardous waste in construction projects.<\/h4>\n

The report, \u2018A toxic legacy: Bottom ash in Europe\u2019s circular economy\u2019, found that the act could embed hazardous waste in roads, buildings and public infrastructure unless strict safeguards are introduced.<\/p>\n

The EU Circular Economy Act (CEA) is set to be implemented in 2026 and aims to accelerate Europe\u2019s transition to a circular economy, reduce dependencies on critical raw materials, and strengthen economic resilience.<\/p>\n

The report argues that, without stronger safeguards, the legislation could unintentionally accelerate the spread of toxic substances throughout the built environment.<\/p>\n

Zero Waste Europe\u2019s (ZWE) report finds that incinerator bottom ash (IBA) contains hazardous substances, including heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), PFAS (\u2018forever chemicals\u2019), and microplastics, all of which can leach into soil and water over time.<\/p>\n

IBA is the solid residue left after burning municipal waste. European municipal waste incineration generates more than 12 million tonnes of IBA every year, according to ZWE.<\/p>\n

IBA is already widely used in roads, concrete, cement blocks and other construction applications across Europe.<\/p>\n

Janek V\u00e4hk, Zero Pollution Policy Manager at ZWE, said that circulating IBA back into the economy through construction materials is a \u2018major contradiction\u2019 in the EU\u2019s circular economy agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a material contains hazardous substances, it should not be used in roads, buildings or public spaces,\u201d\u00a0V\u00e4hk\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cThese residues should be properly contained, not dispersed throughout the environment. At present, controlled landfill remains the safest available option.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s key recommendations include applying the precautionary principle\u00a0to incineration residues, and not incentivise the use of IBA.<\/p>\n

Other recommendations include establishing EU-wide rules\u00a0for the classification, testing and long-term monitoring of IBA and ensuring municipal waste incineration is fully included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.<\/p>\n

The post EU Circular Economy Act risks promoting hazardous waste in construction, report warns<\/a> appeared first on Circular Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 A new report from Zero Waste Europe warns the EU Circular Economy Act risks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1038,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businesssinglesmeet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}