Doing your master's thesis with us at IVL gives you the opportunity to get a unique insight into our research and our work. It's a chance to learn a lot more in your field of study. We welcome thesis students every semester.

About the master thesis

Background

The BUILDERS (Building Up Industry Loops through the Development, evaluation, and testing of an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Scheme for construction products) project is a Horizon Europe project that aims to bridge the current implementation gap by designing and demonstrating EPR schemes that are tailored to the specificities of construction products, yet scalable and harmonized across the EU. Recognizing the cross-border nature of construction value chains, BUILDERS will be implemented in several European regions. BUILDERS focuses on plastic construction products across three product families (floorings, pipes, and sanitary equipment) addressing challenges related to complex material compositions, legacy substances, and low recycling rates. The project aims to demonstrate new economic models, fee structures, and logistics mechanisms for EPR, supported by digital tools, and will assess environmental and social impacts, contributing to the transition towards a circular construction sector in Europe.

The project includes material flow analysis (MFA) of plastic products. The aim of the MFA is to map and quantify the flows of plastic products in the buildings sector, with a focus on understanding the current stock and future dynamics. The MFA will focus on two use cases, plastic flooring in Belgium (but Germany and Netherlands might be included) and plastic pipes in France (with possible upscaling to EU27). The results of this task will support the design of EPR schemes, and will also contribute to identifying potential reuse, or recycling pathways for plastics in the built environment.

Aims

This MSc Thesis seeks to map and quantify plastic products in the building stock of each use case mentioned above developing and using a replicable, data driven approach. Furthermore, the thesis could contribute to identifying potential recovery of plastic products. Three geographical scopes are possible:

• France and Germany

• Belgium and Netherlands

• EU27

Expected outcomes and methods

Method: the MFA uses a bottom-up approach based on data from national statistics or similar; the objective is to establish a replicable, data-driven approach. MFA is a systematic method for quantifying the flows and stocks of materials within a defined system, such as a product, sector, or economy, over a specific period of time. It tracks how materials are extracted, processed, used, reused, and discarded, based on the principle of mass balance. MFA is commonly used to identify inefficiencies, losses, and opportunities for improving resource efficiency and supporting circular

economy strategies. Output: definition of input for an existing Matlab/Simulink model, validation of the model, model results. The model results will quantify current stocks and flows of plastic products in the buildings sector, providing insights relevant for EPR scheme design and for assessing potential reuse and recycling pathways for plastics in the built environment.

Contact

For questions, please contact: 
Supervisors

Érika Mata

Johan Rootzén

Climate & Sustainable Cities, Energy

IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Gothenburg

Tel: +46 (0)10-788-6839; E-mail: erika.mata@ivl.se

Interested?

Submit your interest by clicking on "Registration of interest".