Review of national policy instruments motivating circular construction

Building construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) waste represent about one-third-of global waste production. Implementing circular economy practices in CRD can significantly reduce waste as well as related impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the effect of different types of policies in promoting construction circularity requires further investigation. The objective of this paper is to review the range of policy instruments applied by different countries and investigate how effectively they promote circularity. Based on a literature review, thirty-seven instruments were identified and classified into five types: regulatory, economic, technical, operational, and communicative. The implementation of each of these instruments was investigated for 19 countries, selected to represent each of the world's regions as defined by the World Bank, including: Barbados, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and United States. In each region, countries were selected to represent the full scope of CRD generated per capita. Economic, technical, operational and specific CRD regulatory instruments are moderately correlated to CRD waste recovery. In high income countries CRD regulations are the most correlated with recovery, whereas in middle income countries technical instrument implementation is more correlated.