Maximum sustainability in the building work at Spotify Camp Nou

FC Barcelona is firmly committed to the circular economy and sustainability, one of the three pillars of the 2021-26 Strategi Plan. For that reason a treatment plant has been set up on the land where the Miniestadi used to sit in which concrete and steel from the Spotify Camp Nou work is recycled to be reused during the stadium's reconstruction. It is planned for the plant to be operational until the recycling of all the material is complete. 

The recycling process is based above all on separating the extracted concrete and steel, which is then crushed into different granulations for reuse as raw material for the construction of the new stadium, respecting the maximums permitted by current legislation: 100% in non-structural concrete (leveling and ditches) and 20% in structural concrete. The rest of the recycled aggregate will all be reused as landfill.

The steel is transported to an external company that specialises in the recycling process, after which it is brought back to Spotify Camp Nou, with a minimum percentage of recycled material of 97%, where it forms part of the reinforced concrete and the new structure of the future stadium.

"In this treatment plant the old concrete form the third tier of Spotify Camp Nou is recycled and reused at kilometre zero in one of the largest operations of usage of resource and energetic materials ever carried out in a circular economy. Furthermore, it is the demonstration and Barça's commitment to play a part in solutions that can be applied in the face of climate change crisis," says Jordi Portabella, director of the FC Barcelona Area of Sustainability. 

Circular economy and reduction of the carbon footprint

The inclusion of this maximum possible use of recycled concrete and steel from the demolition of Spotify Camp Nou as part of a kilometer 0 structure are a benchmark for savings on extracting raw materials, the protection of virgin spaces and also respect for the circular economy in the construction of the new stadium. 

Elsewehere, the Club's model of a circular economy brings a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of the Espai Barça redevelopment work, in terms of the materials and energy consumed, transportation and also the manufacture of new material, with recycled concrete and steel accounting for approximately 50% of the carbon footprint of the future Espai Barça.