Duisburg, 9 March 2017 - The German government’s planned Replacement Building Material Ordinance is jeopardising resource efficiency. Dr Rolf Bäfften, Chairman of the Board at the Duisburg-based FEhS Building Materials Institute, fears that the implementation of the proposed ordinance will mean that up to 40 percent of the steel slag produced in Germany can no longer be used as a construction material. That would amount to 2 million tonnes. As a result, the disqualified slag will be dumped in landfill, and replaced in road construction through the use of natural materials. A recent study by the Clausthal Institute of Environmental Technology (CUTEC) found that the landfill space required for dumping these quantities, together with the additional extraction of corresponding primary raw materials, would add up to as much as 385 ha per year. This amounts to an area of 400 football fields. The FEhS Institute urges the German government to take an integrated approach when considering the environmental impact, taking into balanced consideration not only soil and water protection, but also the circular economy and resource efficiency. Steel slag has thus been successfully used in transport construction for decades. Excluding slag from the value creation process counteracts the efforts towards greater resource efficiency.