Using Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste Products

TARGET GROUP: CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

OBJECTIVES

·        To investigate the type of stakeholders influencing the use of recycled C&D waste products and the main factors affecting stakeholders’ decisions to use recycled C&D waste products through a systematic literature review.

SUMMARY

While the increasing rate of urbanisation is a critical concern for environmental and social reasons, this also causes a rapid increase in construction activities around the world. This trend presents challenges in terms of more extraction of natural raw materials and the generation of a substantial quantity of construction and demolition (C&D) waste. Construction activities consume more raw materials by weight than any other industrial sector, nearly 32% of the world’s resources, including 12% of water and up to 40% of energy. Approximately 40% of all raw materials extracted from the Earth and 25% of virgin wood are used for construction. Furthermore, due to the continuous rate of waste generation and the nature of the industry, it is a challenging task to achieve a zero-waste. As resources are increasingly scarce, opportunities to create circular resource flows—otherwise known as the circular economy—cannot be overlooked. This means more efforts should be directed towards keeping the resources in the loop for a longer period through reusing repairing and recycling. While cleaner techniques for selective demolition are used to reduce generation of waste at source, there should be more focus on waste minimisation during the design stage. ‘Modular design’, ‘waste reduction investment’, ‘economic incentives’ are identified as critical factors for reducing waste at design stage.

REFERENCE: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/recycling