This article presents a comprehensive analysis of construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) management in European Union (EU) Member States. The study utilizes official data and reports to assess the current C&D waste management status, revealing substantial disparities in recycling rates across countries, ranging from 100% to 24%. These variations emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing and collaborative efforts to improve C&D waste practices. The paper explores the complex factors influencing C&D waste management performance, offering a nuanced discussion of these dynamics. It provides a comprehensive set of practical strategies to address existing challenges, with a focus on reducing C&D waste sent to landfills or incineration. These recommendations align with the EU’s commitment to sustainable resource management and the transition to a circular economy. The research’s informed measures, driven by environmental responsibility and economic prudence, can significantly diminish C&D waste’s environmental impact. Policymakers, environmentalists, and industry stakeholders can utilize these findings to develop and implement improved C&D waste management practices, promoting sustainability and resource efficiency across the EU. This research contributes valuable insights to the field of C&D waste management, offering a road map for improvement and highlighting the need for collaboration among EU Member States to create a more sustainable and resilient future.
This perspective analysis aims to show the most recent and relevant interventions in a representative sample of selected European railway stations, balancing different criteria by reviewing the most characteristic cases. We analyse its impact at the urban level, assessing whether there is urban regeneration and to what extent; its impact at a functional level, assessing the change in activity as well as the effect on the user, transfer, or dismantling of the railway activity; its impact at an architectural level, assessing whether the actions are global or merely at the level of facade. As a final reflection, we outline the issue of the possibility of reuse in historical railway stations associating it with heritage preservation. The proposed selection contemplates actions in small and large stations and locations; total, partial, and zero dismantling actions in the tracks or the station plot and, finally, new uses ranging from the mixed solution of railway activity and shopping centre to cultural or exclusively leisure solutions. The timeline covers approximately the last three decades (1985–2022).
This article presents the study carried out on the main Spanish historic railway stations to obtain a joint and comparative view of the current state of its heritage conservation. The temporal scope is limited to the construction period of the Spanish historic stations. A motivated selection of a series of extrinsic and intrinsic variables is proposed, checking heritage variables to evaluate the degree of adequate heritage protection. The conclusions of the study show the antithesis between what is to be protected (the railway station) and what is really saved (the passenger building), making it necessary to change the legal protection status from monuments to landscapes. Thus, various interventions can be observed on the disaffected land with no heritage connection. The material and technological valorisation of unique components such as the large platform and track roofs is ignored. It is also observed that the maintenance of railway use is essential and that global interventions lead to a more significant loss of significance than those carried out for maintenance purposes. This leads to the conclusion that preventive conservation is more effective in protecting this heritage than global interventions.
The construction and demolition sectors are among the world’s most critical activities, generating large amounts of waste. Thus, these sectors’ waste accumulation problem is related to the environmental protection system and proper waste management. On the other hand, it is well known that proper waste disposal can increase its value. In this way, the economic potential of the trash can be raised again. Therefore, this article will examine the economic potential of construction and demolition (C & D) waste. Different waste management processes will be analyzed to better understand the topic from a financial perspective in this area underway in Spain. Therefore, data from other regions of Spain were collected. This data led to results where the most expensive rooms were Pais Vasco and the Balearic Islands, where disposal of C & D waste had the highest prices, exceeding EUR 30 per ton. Conversely, the lowest prices are found in regions such as Navarre and Andalusia, where prices per ton are EUR 8 and EUR 6, respectively. The values show a direct relationship between the treatment price and the amount of C & D waste disposed of. Therefore, this article will look at different factors influencing sustainable waste management. Such activities have a positive impact, as waste needs to be recycled and reevaluated by waste management operators. The cost of construction waste is an integral part of the budget because it represents the monetary value of the cost of collecting and recycling construction waste. Construction waste is an essential resource for economic and social development, as it contributes to job creation, education and culture, and the protection and preservation of the environment.
La construcción de vivienda ferroviaria durante el franquismo, primero por parte de RENFE y luego a través de las cooperativas de ferroviarios, fue muy significativa totalizando unas veinte mil viviendas en el periodo 1945-1975. Al tratarse de viviendas promovidas por una empresa pública del franquismo se observa un condicionamiento particular en la tipología, la materialidad y la construcción; no sólo debido a la imposición de la ideología del Régimen sino también a las rígidas normativas y a los problemas de suministro y restricción de los materiales. El gran número de vivienda construida permitió la generalización de soluciones constructivas ya obsoletas y ayudó a consolidar a la mal denominada “construcción tradicional”, alejándose de toda la innovación y experimentación previas en un patrimonio todavía en uso donde las arcaicas soluciones constructivas empleadas dificultan su adaptación sostenible tanto a las nuevas formas de habitar como a las actuales exigencias normativas.
Most of the life cycle of the railway infrastructures is singularly long-lived. Thus, in the case of the reference buildings, as is often the way with the travellers buildings, their use far exceed the century. In addition, many of these stations were born in the 19th century with a symbolic representation load with which they have not still parted. This is the reason why many analyses referred to railway heritage are emotionally charged. In our study of the case, the railway station of Almería, 125 years after its construction, the building remains without use since in 2000 was replaced by the attached intermodal station, which has led at present to an intense debate on his preservation and reuse. It is a building that, despite possessing singularities and architectural relevancies of great interest, the process of patrimonial protection is unfinished being a clear threat to the integrity of the building. As it is exhibited in the text, despite the modesty of the railway company that built it, the building stands out on most of the principal stations of Spain. We do a brief managerial note of the company that entrusted its construction and later we study closely the architectural program of the building, the different interventions carried out and the current situation of the heritage protection.