Abstract
The construction sector has significant impacts on the environment due to the consumption of resources and the production of waste. The implementation of circular economy strategies can improve the environmental performance of the sector, optimising the current production and consumption patterns, slowing and closing material loops, and using waste as a source of raw materials. Biowaste represents a key waste flow at the European scale. However, research on its application in the construction sector is still limited and product-oriented, with little insights into the processes of valorisation undertaken at the company’s level. This study presents eleven case studies of Belgian small and medium-sized enterprises involved in biowaste valorisation in the construction sector in order to tackle this research gap in the Belgian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to identify the enterprise’s business profile and its current marketing practices, as well as to analyse opportunities and barriers for market expansion and highlight current research interests. Results show that the overall picture is extremely heterogeneous in terms of sourcing, production methods, and products, while the barriers and success factors that have been identified are recurrent. This study contributes to the circular economy research in the construction sector by providing insights into innovative waste-based materials and business models.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all participating enterprises and research centres. We are also grateful to Prof. André Stephan (University of Louvain) for his valuable feedback on previous versions of the manuscript.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Giulia Scialpi. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Giulia Scialpi, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Appendix
Appendix
Question package | Topics |
|---|---|
1. What is the company profile of the Belgian business that process biowaste to produce building materials? | 1. What is the name of the company? 2. What is the date of creation? 3. In which region does the company work? 4. What is the interviewee position? 5. How many employees does the company have? 6. Is the company a spin-off/start-up? 7. Does the company belong to a cluster? 8. Is the company working in countries other than Belgium? |
2. Which are the barriers and the success factors having an impact on the development of these companies? | 1. What was the main inspiration for starting this project? 2. Which are the main barriers of your business model? 3. Which are the main success factors of your business model? 4. Which future goals the enterprise would like to achieve in the future? |
3. How can business models be implemented to overcome these barriers and foster the success factors? | 1. How did the enterprise test the feasibility of the business? 2. On which base did you choose this specific type of biowaste? 3. How did the enterprise quantify the amount of biowaste available? 4. Which is the source of your raw material (urban/agricultural by product/mixed source)? 5. Do you buy or collect the raw material? 6. Can you describe your value chain organisation? 7. Is the production process completely centralised? 8. Do you have any partnership? 9. Do you work in more than one region? 10. Who are your clients? 11. Are they intermediate users or final consumers? 12. How is your distribution organised (online/direct retail)? 13. How do you promote your business (social media/events/web pages)? 14. How do you do R&D (partnership with universities/private)? 15. Which are the main technologies used in the production process? 16. Are these technologies traditional (already existent) or experimental (developed for your specific product)? 17. Would you be able and interested in working with another kind of biowaste? 18. Which kind of products do you produce (bricks, floor, chipboards etc.)? 19. How much of raw material do you need for your production? 20. How much does your product cost? 21. Did you realise an LCA for your technology? 22. Questions—policies 23. Does the company benefit from public funding for circular economy? 24. If so, which one? 25. When did the funding start? 26. How did it help the company’s work? 27. Which policies regulate your work? 28. Which kind of policy could help/facilitate your business? |
Conclusion | Can you please suggest the name of another informant I might get in contact with for further interviews and discussion? |
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Scialpi, G., Perrotti, D. Circular economy in the valorisation of food and other biowaste: case studies in small and medium-sized enterprises in the Belgian construction sector. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 17914–17931 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28324-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28324-z