# Hurdles to a Circular Built Environment: A Look at the Economic and Market Barriers
## 1 Introduction  
Climate change and the subsequent climate emergency, finite resources and the environmental impact of winning them from the earth's crust, and increased emphasis on sustainability through the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) have led to a rethinking of the linear economic model, where the ultimate end product is the waste heap. The circular economy, as advocated by the Ellen McArthur Foundation (EMF), brings us back to an approach to resources that global society abandoned in a race for profit, efficiency, and convenience. The built environment is a major consumer of resources globally. In the EU, 5.5 tonnes of material per capita are consumed during construction [1]. In the UK, construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounted for 62% of the material sent to landfills in 2018 [2]. However, landfills have become an issue for local governments across the EU with the introduction of landfill taxes. Between 2008 and 2012, it was estimated that the construction sector in England paid approximately \(\epsilon\)1000 million in landfill taxes. At the same time, dedicated efforts to divert construction, demolition, and excavation (CD&E) waste from landfills saved the industry \(\epsilon\)144 million [3]. The application of a circular approach to resource management in the built environment is gaining increasing attention. The EMF has been leading the way since 2012 [4]. In conjunction with EMF, Arup, the multinational engineering consultancy, published a Circular Buildings Toolkit in 2022 [5]. An EU COST Action (CircularB) was also established in 2022 to investigate how to implement a circular economy in the built environment [6]. The transition to a circular built environment (CBE) is essential for addressing sustainability challenges, yet it faces significant market barriers rooted in stakeholder dynamics. The CBE promotes resource efficiency by integrating the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle into construction and urban planning. However, the construction sector's entrenched linear models and associated cultural norms hinder its adoption. These barriers include fragmented responsibilities among stakeholders, regulatory misalignments, and the perceived financial risks of innovative circular solutions. As part of the CircularB network [6], a multi-national questionnaire was launched in 2024 to gather opinions on the technological, regulatory, political, cultural, societal, economic, and market barriers to circular economy from built environment professionals. Economic and market barriers received the greatest attention from respondents in terms of their importance (38%), rated by 270 stakeholders ranging from academia, architects, engineers, professionals engaged in investment, development, and insurance, manufacturers of building/construction products, consultants, environmental specialists, and project managers, to building and construction professionals. Although this paper focuses on market barriers, they cannot be observed in isolation as they are deeply interrelated with other barriers that need to be addressed to achieve more circularity in the construction industry. Almost one-third of the respondents found policy and regulatory barriers to be critical factors hindering the upscaling of circular practices, while 17% of respondents perceived technical and technological barriers as a significant concern. Cultural and societal hurdles were prioritised by nearly 11% of survey participants, while five participants indicated that some other barriers play a crucial role in impeding the implementation of circular economy principles. Considering the profit-oriented nature of companies in the construction ecosystem, the market barriers deserve special attention, and a deeper understanding can support policy interventions to facilitate the transition toward a CBE. For instance, developers and investors often prioritise short-term returns, deterring investments in long-term sustainable practices [7; 8].