Buildings and the circular economy: Estimating urban mining, recovery and reuse potential of building components

摘要: Abstract Continuous accumulation of materials in cities have led to the prospects urban mining for secondary resources. Several commodities and/or products been assessed recent years and reuse potential viz. automobiles, electronic waste etc. Urban buildings, largest material sinks globally, however require considerations which differ from product-centric approaches. This study proposes a methodological framework estimating city-wide mining, recovery building components. First, it extends stock flow assessment potentials so that recoverable reusable flows can be highlighted. Secondly, expands applications provide an impactful representation stakeholders such as policy makers, consumers, designers practitioners. The proposed has applied public residential buildings Singapore, city state Southeast Asia, assessing components windows, doors, tiles, light fixtures, toilet kitchen fittings. As case study, construction low-cost houses neighbouring Indonesia was explored receive component flows. Results highlight could supported range 830–1910 2016 with more than 30,000 households getting benefit over six this study. Overall, outflows Singapore partly support 2200–6030 annually resource-constrained housing sector surrounding developing region. Realization circular economy practice will contribute towards sustainable development goals climate change mitigation efforts.