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Scandium (Sc) applications in solid oxygen fuel cells, aeronautics and heat exchange systems are forecasted to increase significantly without a sufficient continuous Sc supply for Europe. ScaVanger is an EU project for upscaling Sc extraction and purification technologies from various TiO2 pigment production residues. High purity Sc2O3 and ScF3 will be produced at competitive prices for the EU market. The ScaVanger process is expected to result in a 10% higher production rate and higher product purity as processing starts with a unique cleaning process of actinides. The first plant at a major European TiO2 pigment production site will be supplying about 30 t/a of Sc2O3.

Background Owing to the large amounts of energy, greenhouse gases, and waste that it generates, the construction industry is fundamental to the transition towards a circular economy. Indicators which show the circularity of products—and thus make them comparable with each other—can be used to support the implementation of such an economy. In this article, we have adapted the material circularity indicator of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in order to analyze the circularity of construction products available in the German environmental database ÖKOBAUDAT. Results The adapted indicator is applied to 89 building products from the categories of insulation materials, plastics, metals, and mineral building materials. More than half of the products receive the lowest score of 0.10, indicating poor implementation of circular strategies in the German construction industry to date. Conclusion Circular material flows are most likely to be employed for metals. However, the overall low circularity scores indicate a big need for better implementing circularity strategies.

The circular economy in the construction industry is still in its infancy. It seems particularly difficult for companies in this sector to make strategic decisions that enable sustainable operations and ensure long-term business success. This article investigates factors such as employee involvement at the operational level that facilitate circular economy practices for companies in the construction industry. For this purpose, we conducted a company survey and analyzed it using a structural equation model. The results show that it is worthwhile for companies to empower their manufacturing employees to take actions independently in order to increase process quality and to reduce setup time, which together lead to better circular economy efficiency.

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