Recycling construction waste at Hyvinkää and Oulu

Construction waste is mainly delivered to the Oulu sorting plant from construction sites around the Oulu area and freight forwarded from further away.

The Hyvinkää circular economy hub accepts waste from corporate clients from all of Southern Finland. Hyvinkää is currently expanding customer relationships and the range of materials accepted.

The main importers of construction and demolition waste are transport and waste companies that operate waste transport in a centralised manner. These waste loads mainly consist of wood, plastic, pipes, cables, roofing felt, insulation, and mineral fractions.

Waste is mainly delivered to the Oulu and Hyvinkää branches for recycling in two different ways; either with the materials pre-separated at the source, or the waste is delivered completely unsorted.

Construction waste may also arrive from the same construction site in both of these ways, depending on how difficult it is to separate different materials.

Recycling construction waste from construction sites

“It is common for construction materials that different materials have been glued to each other, for example, which makes separating them at the place of their origin laborious or, at the very least, economically unprofitable. On several construction sites, fractions can also blend together, for example due to lack of space or scarcity of resources,” shares Antti Mattila, project manager at Syklo.

This kind of unsorted construction waste is recycled at the modern sorting plant in Oulu. The material is first crushed, after which the sorting line processes the different fractions into their own streams. The final product includes materials for recycling and reclamation. In Hyvinkää, the waste is crushed and separated manually.

Antti Mattila, project manager at Syklo.

“Each fraction has its own reclamation and recycling route, which is mainly realised by our partners. For example, metals and plasterboards travel as such as raw materials for new products, concrete and bricks go to be recovered for different applications, and wood fractions of different quality end up in energy recovery,” Mattila lists.

When the recycling route of each material has been well thought out, it saves a considerable amount of virgin raw materials and, at the same time, reduces carbon dioxide emissions.

This construction and demolition waste is strictly prohibited from our branches

Although our aim is to recycle everything, there is still construction waste that we cannot accept. An example of this is pressure-impregnated wood, which is hazardous waste.

We also do not accept hazardous waste in Oulu or Hyvinkää. The most common hazardous waste found at demolition sites is asbestos. A survey is done for all hazardous substances in demolition sites, and demolition work is carried out by specialised parties. For this reason, hazardous waste is not usually delivered with normal demolition waste even accidentally.

However, something unfortunate is repeated at the branches almost weekly. That is broken power tool batteries and single-use batteries that come with the construction waste.

“These absolutely do not belong with construction waste, as they can ignite or even explode by themselves. If the batteries reach the sorting line, they cause a hazardous situation and an ignition risk when they are subjected to mechanical processing and crushing.”

Power tool batteries and single-use batteries usually end up in construction waste at the source.

“This is often due to a lack of awareness about how power tool batteries and single-use batteries should be recycled. We must raise general awareness on their part.”

Power tool batteries are accepted at local collection points and single-use batteries are accepted at almost every waste reception point in grocery stores. Read more about how they are recycled on the Paristokierrätys website.