Morgan Sindall Construction, BIMBox, University of Salford, University of Manchester and Arcas & Callisto Consulting will be part of a research project on waste management in the built environment
The landmark four-year study, known as RECONMATIC, will explore automated solutions to increase sustainability in waste management across the built environment.
The UK partners will develop methods through digital construction and building information modelling (BIM) that will help to better identify and minimise waste during the entire lifecycle of a building.
Refining waste management in the built environment will help to reach international net zero targets
The project, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Horizon Europe – the EU’s key R&D funding programme – will create solutions that are easily adoptable by all stakeholders involved in the processes of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management.
This ambition will help stakeholders reach the expected future EU target of high CDW recovery (to be set in 2024 or beyond) and long-term, the status of zero CDW by 2050.
Multiple bodies will collaborate on standardising waste related data
Huge amounts of CDW data have already been gathered by Morgan Sindall for materials such as concrete, steel and plasterboard – some of the major contributors of embodied carbon in construction.
Morgan Sindall will work with 23 Reconmatic partners based in seven countries to develop digital tools to resolve issues with waste management in the built environment.
Working closely with the University of Salford, this data will be used to valorise waste and map out optimised waste streams for construction materials – with the ambition of realising a true circular economy.
To support the sharing of waste-related information within a digital context, Morgan Sindall and BIMBox will be leading the development of a new dataset, known as WASTEie, to simplify information exchange, data assignment and classification, both at projects and between organisations trhough standardisation.
Once live, it is intended to provide clearer routes for collaboration which estates teams, contractors and designers alike can use to take advantage of BIM and digital construction processes to proactively reduce waste.
In tandem, Morgan Sindall’s Materials Data Bank (MDB) will be interlinked to and from WASTEie, ensuring the latest manufacturer and product data is shared and stored.
Predictive and real time digital tools will also be utilised
Alongside these digital tools calibrated for refining waste management in the built environment, the team will employ generative design tools to establish AI-driven optimisation initiatives, such as waste predictor tools.
These will interlink with the MDB and WASTEie dataset to ensure the same data and language is used throughout and can support new and existing developments.
The MDB will map out current waste streams and influence future waste streams for the majority of materials used on both new build and refurbishment schemes within construction and infrastructure.
The predictor tools will establish new, more accurate benchmark targets throughout a project’s lifecycle. This will help clients, developers, consultants and contractors to make more informed choices to design out waste from the outset.
Digital twins will be used to apply innovations even faster
Learnings from across the research period will be incorporated to enable the widest application possible throughout construction and infrastructure projects, plus potentially for use in external industries.
The process of converting different formats of construction information to digital twins will be automated, as will the decision-making system for repurposing, deconstruction and demolition. RECONMATIC will employ cutting edge automated AI-assisted CDW classification and robotic segregation off-site in order to achieve its ambitious goals.
Professor Yong Wang from the University of Manchester said:
“We’re delighted to be working with partners from the private sector and academia on this Horizon Europe project that will turbocharge the development and implementation of innovative practices of sustainability in waste management across the built environment in the world.
“We are leading the development of digital twin of buildings at the end of their life to enable automated waste audit for optimal reuse and high value recycling of building materials and components.”
Engaging stakeholders and policymakers to promote better waste management in the built environment
Juan Ferriz-Papi, lecturer in Building Surveying at the University of Salford, said:
“Change is difficult to promote in the construction industry but the new challenges to achieve net zero targets means we need to introduce automation technologies to improve performance, quality and sustainability in our buildings.
“This project looks in detail at the different stages of the construction asset life cycle. Data management and stakeholder collaboration are the main focus on RECONMATIC, where the University of Salford is contributing from the Built Environment and Robotics departments.”
Barry Roberts, North West managing director of Morgan Sindall Construction, said:
“This composition of our consortium will enable the project to tackle the whole life cycle of waste management, propose beyond-state-of-the-art technologies, and contribute to reaching the zero-waste construction industry in Europe that we all desire.
“Throughout RECONMATIC, we want to engage with industry stakeholders and policymakers to encourage the widespread adoption of the innovations we will deliver.
“This is a really exciting initiative and comes at a time when the development of net zero solutions has never been more important.”
