Construction and Demolition Waste: Definitions, Categories, and Management
DEFINITION OF CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE (RCD)
According to Law 10/1998 on waste, waste is any substance or object belonging to any of the categories listed in the annex of the Act, which the holder discards or has the intention or obligation to discard. In any case, this consideration will include those contained in the European Waste Catalogue (EWC European Waste List or RSI), approved by the Community institutions.
Categories of waste according to Law 10/1998 annexed
Waste
- Production or consumption not specified below.
- Products which do not meet the standards.
- Expired Products.
- Materials spilled by accident, have been lost, or having undergone other mishaps, including materials, equipment, etc., which has been contaminated as a result of the mishap.
- Materials soiled as a result of contaminants from planned actions (e.g., residues from cleaning operations, packing materials, containers, etc.).
- Unused elements (e.g., reject batteries, exhausted catalysts, etc.).
- Substances which no longer perform satisfactorily (e.g., contaminated acids, contaminated solvents, exhausted tempering salts, etc.).
- Residues of industrial processes (e.g., slags, still bottoms, etc.)
- Residues from pollution abatement processes (e.g., scrubber sludges, gas, dust, air filters, spent filters, etc.).
- Residues from machining/finishing (e.g., lathe turnings, mill scales, etc.).
- Residues from extraction and processing of raw materials (e.g., mining waste or oil, etc.).
- Adulterated materials (e.g., oils contaminated with PCBs, etc.).
- Any materials, substances, or products whose use is prohibited by law.
- Products that are not useful or no longer useful to the possessor (e.g., discarded items for agriculture, homes, offices, warehouses, workshops, etc.).
- Materials, substances, or products from contaminated soil regeneration activities.
- Any materials, substances, or products which are not included in the above categories.
According to the Directive 2006/12/EC on waste or Order MAM/304/2002 on recovery operations and waste disposal and the European Waste List (LER), waste is any substance or object belonging to any of the established categories, which the holder discards or is being required to discard.
OTHER DEFINITIONS
Producer of construction and demolition waste:
- The natural person or legal owner of the planning permission in a construction or demolition. In those works that do not require planning permission, the waste producer will be considered the person or legal owner of the immovable object of a construction or demolition.
- The natural or legal person who carries out processing, mixing, or otherwise, resulting in a change in the nature or composition of the waste.
- The importer or purchaser in any Member State of the European Union construction and demolition waste.
Owner of construction and demolition waste: A natural or legal person in possession of construction and demolition waste and not serving as a waste manager. In any case, the natural or legal person to execute the construction or demolition, such as the builder, subcontractors, or freelancers, shall be regarded as possessing. In any case, it shall be considered the owner of construction and demolition waste from the employees.
Preparation: The physical, thermal, chemical, or biological processes, including sorting, that changes the characteristics of construction and demolition waste by reducing its volume or hazardous nature, facilitating its handling, increasing the potential for recovery, or improving their behavior in the landfill.
Manager: The person or entity, public or private, that performs any of the operations that make up the management of waste, whether or not the producer of them.
Management: The collection, storage, transport, recovery, and disposal of waste, including monitoring of these activities, and monitoring of disposal sites or landfills after closure.
Prevention: The set of measures to prevent waste generation or to get your reduction or the amount of hazardous substances or contaminants in them.
Reuse: The use of a product used for the same purpose for which it was originally designed.
Recycling: The transformation of waste within a production process for its original purpose or for other purposes, including composting and methane generation, but not incineration with energy recovery.
Recovery: Any procedure that allows the use of the resources contained in waste without endangering human health and without using methods that may harm the environment.
Disposal: Any process directed to either the waste disposal or to its destruction, total or partial, made without endangering human health and without using methods that may harm the environment.
Collection: All measures related to the gathering, sorting, grouping, or preparation of waste for transport.
Selective collection: The system of separate collection of organic materials and recyclable materials, as well as any other separate collection system that allows the separation of recoverable materials contained in the waste.
Storage: The temporary storage of waste prior to recovery or disposal, for less than two years or six months in the case of hazardous waste, unless lower limits are established by regulation.