ABSTRACT
Demolition is the traditional technique, which handles the end-of-lifetime of any building, if refurbishing is not applicable anymore. Demolition is one of the biggest source of waste all over the world. The will to reduce waste leads to different recycling techniques. While waste of concrete can only go through a downcycling process and produces recycled gravel, steel and iron are used as source for new steel parts for decades. Old Steel will be generally separated and is used as a resource to produce new steel. Because steel is an expensive resource, the recycling quota of steel is above 90%. Nevertheless, the recycling of steel is energy hungry and produces a huge CO2-footprint. Thus, the reuse of steel-elements can minimize this ecologic footprint. While for most C&D waste the focus lies on additional recycling options and the concept of urban mining is adapted, the future of steel-based buildings should be the reuse of steel-parts. The conceptual idea starts already when a building is planned by the application of a “design for deconstruction”. This paper discusses practical aspect of the reuse of steel-based parts and defines limits of reuse. Those limits are given by the steel quality as well as by aspects of contamination (tar, asbestos). Examples of succeeded recovering of steel parts are introduced.
