Construction Rubble (Bauschutt)

What counts as construction rubble — and what does not

Clean construction rubble consists of concrete, brick, roof tiles, mortar, cement screed, ceramic tiles and sanitary ceramics. Kept as a single fraction it is readily recyclable and processed into recycled concrete or sub-base material.

Not part of it: plasterboard and gypsum (its own fraction, because gypsum interferes with concrete recycling), wood, metal, insulation material, plastics, bitumen and roofing felt, and anything that might contain pollutants. Even small admixtures turn cheap construction rubble into expensive mixed waste (Mischabfall).

Pollutants in construction waste

For buildings constructed before 1990, it must be established before any strip-out whether asbestos, PCB or PAH are present. Asbestos can be hidden in floor tiles, tile adhesives, fibre-cement (Eternit) panels, pipe insulation and fire-protection cladding. Such material must not go into ordinary construction rubble and, depending on its type, requires a certified remediation contractor.

Weight, not volume, is the limit

Construction rubble is heavy: one cubic metre weighs between 1,400 and 2,400 kilograms depending on the material. A 10-cubic-metre skip filled with rubble is therefore often at its weight limit when it is only half full. That is why smaller skips are used for rubble than for bulky waste — a point that regularly causes problems for people organising the job themselves.