Material Recovery Right
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A market design to enhance circular economy in construction sector
Circular economy approaches in the construction sector are still evolving. Even though building technologies allow to construct highly recyclable buildings there are neither a regulatory requirement nor economic incentives to ensure that in the end of the buildings’ life time materials are properly dismantled and put back into circulation.
In order to advance the circular economy in the construction sector, we develop a concept to economically incentivise the dismantling and reuse of materials after the building’s lifetime - Material Recovery Right.
The centrepiece of the MRR model is the MRR certificate. The MRR certificate is the material passport and obligation to dismantle the building at the end of its lifetime according to the certificate guidelines. The MRR certificate is sold by real estate developers and traded on the marketplace. The MRR Investors benefit from price increases of raw materials. This creates a financial incentive for the real estate developers to consider the dismantling phase during the planning process despite the additional efforts required.
We collaborate with the Junior Professorship Cycle-Oriented Construction and Moringa GmbH in order to determine the monetary value of components for circular buildings and to develop a certificate system as an incentive-compatible pricing structure. The concept will be applied, validated and exemplarily applied to the façade system on the basis of a concrete construction project for a multi-storey residential building by the Moringa GmbH in Hamburg's Hafen City.
The research project is funded by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building (BMWSB) with funds from the Future Building Research Fund.