Evaluation of the Substitute Building Materials Ordinance

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ifeu Heidelberg has been commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency to carry out scientific monitoring to evaluate and further develop the regulations of the Substitute Building Materials Ordinance "Ersatzbaustoffverordnung" (EBV). The EBV came into force on 1 August 2023 and regulates the requirements for the Usage of mineral substitute building materials in technical structures in a uniform manner throughout Germany. The aim is to check whether the substitute building materials are increasingly being used for high-quality recycling or whether there is a shift in the material flow towards backfilling and landfills. 

The Substitute Building Materials Ordinance (EBV) regulates the requirements for the production and placing on the market of mineral substitute building materials (MEB) and their usage in technical structures. 
Section 5 (2) of the MantelV instructs the Federal Government to review the effects of the enforcement of the regulations on the recycling of mineral waste by 1 August 2025 and to implement any identified need for adaptation by amending the ordinance.
The focus is on the question: "How will the material flows change, e.g. due to increased landfilling or increased recovery or recycling options as a result of the enforcement of the EBV?" 
The planned project pursues the following core objectives 

• Recording the status quo regarding the type of disposal of MEBs and comparing it with practice before the EBV came into force
• Implementation of a simulation game 2.0 to provide an overview of possible waste management developments and comparison with the results of the simulation game before the EBV was introduced
• Evaluation of real cadastral data for the years 2024 to 2026 and modelling of non-reportable volume flows