To Use or Not to Use : Attitudes Towards Sustainability and Measures to Increase the Use of Recycled Concrete in Building Construction - an Experimental Approach

The construction sector is one of the most waste-intensive sectors in Germany, which highlights its importance in the context of the circular economy and transition to a resource-conserving economy. Thus, against the background of the potential importance of recycled concrete in closing the material cycles, the objective of the study is to experimentally verify the effectiveness of potential measures to increase the use of recycled concrete in building construction. For this purpose, combined item-based, factorial and discrete choice survey of the architects and engineers in Germany and Switzerland has been carried out. The results indicate that the willingness of engineers and architects to use recycled concrete in a building construction can increase through the consideration of sustainability as an additional award criterion in public tenders, educational policy measures in the field of sustainable construction, consideration of recycled concrete in the environmental label and increasing the maximum permissible proportion of recycled aggregate. In the context of economic policy practice, these measures are recommended to enhance sustainability in the construction sector