Housing in Ukraine (Project B):

2017: The National Strategy on Waste Management until 2030 was passed: it sets out the course for CDW recycling and for the sustainable usage of resources in construction.

2019: The National Plan on Waste Management until 2030 was passed: it lays out a plan for the new laws about different types of waste, but the CDW waste is not mentioned; for the present moment only the foundational law “On Waste Management” was passed.

2020: The law “On providing construction products to the market” will take force from 1 Jan 2023 This law sets a requirement for sustainable use of natural resources by reuse and recycling, by design for longevity, and by usage of ecologically friendly materials.

2021: over 500 national standards identical to EU harmonized standards for construction products were passed in order to comply with the regulation 305/2011 of EU Parliament.

From January 1, 2023, Ukraine will become the 32nd country in the world to implement EU Regulation No. 305/2011 which lays down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products.

June 2022: The law “On Waste Management” is the foundation of the future waste management legislation; it will be followed by sectoral laws and by regional and local waste management plans; according to an expert (Igor Lysenko, PAEU) the process to set up legislation for waste management on all levels will take at least 3-4 years from now.

Aug 2022: the “National Standard on Life Cycle Costs for Buildings” to stimulate energy- and resource-efficient construction.

Aug, Sept 2022: several laws were changed and national building standards were updated to deepen the state’s course on energy saving and comprehensive thermal modernization of the country

Sept 2022: The new law “On the Public Health System” banned the usage of asbestos in new building materials but didn’t introduce any measures for existing buildings with asbestos.

Sept 2022: the new “Procedure for handling demolition waste generated by hostilities” was issued; it introduced categories of CDW waste and how they can be treated, while hazardous waste (including asbestos) was not addressed.

Sept 2022: Changes to regulation #590 about the financing of municipal activities: Municipalities are limited in spending their budgets during martial law on certain activities and demolition waste management is NOT one of them.

There is a lot of attention from international organizations to the problem of war demolition waste in UA

Starting from Sept 2022 there was a series of online and offline networking events for municipalities, professionals in the fields of waste management, ecology and environment, and actors in the field of reconstruction.

A pilot project for housing using the demolition debris in Kharkiv is being developed by the Norman Foster Foundation and Arup Berlin in cooperation with local architects and city administration.

Potential cooperation between the UA government and Green Mix company (Israel) to build the first RA-producing plant in UA was announced in Aug 2022 though there are no recent developments in the news.

All this contributes to the awareness of all stakeholders on the current status, challenges, and potentials of CDW management; BUT other aspects of circular construction are not discussed yet.

Potentials:
• After the full-scale invasion and after Ukraine became a candidate for EU membership, the state regulation of the construction industry is changing rapidly to become harmonized with EU regulations.
• Most progress is happening in the field of waste management and energy efficiency of buildings.
• Ukraine has communicated a strong intention for green recovery and sustainable development in the last months.

Challenges:
• no national strategy for circularity in the construction industry.
• New laws are “moderate” and have recommendation character rather than prescriptive. Control mechanisms are not defined or not working.
• There is an urgent need for national standards for secondary and recycled building materials setting requirements and making them marketable products.

Recommendations:
• Systematic review of construction industry regulations and establish a functional and supportive legislative framework to improve circularity in construction. Cooperation between many stakeholders: investors, developers, producers of building materials, etc needed
• Develop similar measures for the recent energy efficiency of buildings to other aspects of circularity in construction and recycling.