Construction Waste Generation Research Articles

Research on Environmental Kuznets Curve of Construction Waste Generation Based on China’s Provincial Data

The mounting volume of construction waste in China has been steadily rising over the years, yet has largely been overlooked. The environmental Kuznets curve offers a theoretical framework for understanding environmental management by illustrating the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation. This paper applies the environmental Kuznets curve concept to China’s construction waste generation, utilizing per capita construction waste and gross domestic product per capita as environmental and economic indicators, respectively. Panel data from 31 Chinese provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions spanning from 2000 to 2022 are analyzed. This study reveals an N-shaped relationship between per capita construction waste generation and gross domestic product per capita in China. Additionally, this paper employs the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology model to assess the factors influencing construction waste generation. In descending order of impact, these factors are the size of China’s secondary industry value added (19.34%), construction labor productivity (19.33%), gross domestic product per capita (18.54%), urbanization rate (17.77%), year-end resident population (17.22%), and the technical equipment rate of construction enterprises (8.83%). All these factors contribute positively to construction waste generation. These findings are pivotal in guiding efforts towards minimizing construction waste at its source and for the sustainable development of the construction industry.

Estimating the Contribution of Various Construction Materials on Construction Waste Generation Onsite in South Eastern Nigeria

Estimating the Contribution of Various Construction Materials on Construction Waste Generation Onsite in South Eastern Nigeria

Application of Aggregates from Construction and Demolition Wastes in Concrete: Review

In the current century, urbanization and the development of the construction industry have led to the generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW), imposing pressure on ecology and the environment. This has attracted the attention of industry personnel and researchers. This work discusses the current research on recycled coarse or fine aggregate, mainly focusing on the physical, mechanical and durability properties of sustainable concrete with recycled coarse or fine aggregate. Furthermore, it also summarizes CDW recycling and classification in major countries, the production processes of recycled aggregate, and the physical properties. This review will provide a reference for the application of concrete with recycled coarse or fine aggregate. Moreover, this review notes that replacing natural aggregates with both coarse and fine recycled aggregates awaits further experimental exploration.

Data-Driven Predictive Analysis and Sustainable Management of Concrete Waste in Pakistan

The construction sector of Pakistan is on a cross-growth trajectory, developing under the twin pressures of emerging infrastructure-based demands and sustainable practices that need to be inculcated urgently. This article focuses on the critical evaluation of sustainable waste management practices within the fast-developing construction industry of Pakistan, and clearly delineates a research gap in the current methodologies and use of data combined with the absence of a strategy for effective management of concrete waste. This research aims to utilize an algorithm based on machine learning that will provide accurate prediction in the generation of construction waste by harnessing the potential of real-time data for improved sustainability in the construction process. This research has identified fundamental factors leading systematically to the generation of concrete waste by creating an extensive dataset from construction firms all over Pakistan. This research study also identifies the potential concrete causes and proposed strategies towards the minimization of waste with a strong focus on the reuse and recycling of the same concrete material to enhance the adoption of sustainable practices. The prediction of the model indicates that the volumes of construction are to increase to 158 cubic meters by 2030 and 192 cubic meters by 2040. Further, it projects the increase in concrete construction waste volumes to 223 cubic meters by the year 2050 through historical wastage patterns.

Utilizing Waste Materials to Enhance Crop Production: A Review

Waste management is a crucial aspect of modern societies, encompassing various activities to ensure the safe and effective disposal of waste materials. It can be classified as hazardous waste, electronic trash (e-waste), industrial waste, and municipal solid waste (MSW). Sustainable waste management practices aim to reduce environmental impact while protecting public health. Urbanization leads to increased residential water consumption, however reusing wastewater for non-potable applications like agriculture can be cost-effective. The overall costs of delivering wastewater for agricultural reuse, including treatment, storage, and transportation, are less the total costs of safe environmental disposal alternatives. Drainage may also be a source of macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), which reduces the cost of wastewater for agricultural reuse. The adoption of these principles could lead to a 48% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The management of hazardous waste, including toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive materials, is also a significant concern. In order to safeguard public health and stop the spread of infectious illnesses, animal manure management is crucial. The global generation of construction and demolition waste is expected to double by 2025, with the majority generated in Asia. Sustainable waste management practices are necessary to ensure public health and the environment.

Decarbonizing prefabricated building waste: Scenario simulation of policies in China

Compared to cast-in-situ construction, prefabricated construction reduces the generation of construction waste; however, construction waste cannot be entirely eliminated through prefabrication and can be generated at each stage of its life cycle. This paper generates a system dynamics model, comprising two causal-loop diagrams and one stock-flow diagram, to simulate the effectiveness of policies on decarbonizing prefabricated concrete building waste. The model can predict the annual and total construction waste, along with the associated carbon emissions, under different policy scenarios in China by 2030. This paper focuses on prefabricated concrete buildings in China, with specific attention to the wastage of concrete, bricks, mortar, and metal. In single-factor scenario simulations, increasing landfilling fee is the most effective policy for waste decarbonization, potentially reducing carbon emissions by 31%. Increasing prefabrication rate and enhancing regulation degree at the design phase of prefabrication can directly reduce prefabricated building waste generation, subsequently resulting in an 18% and 7% carbon emissions reduction. Multi-factor scenario simulations demonstrate that the simultaneous application of all four policies is most effective, achieving a 44% reduction in carbon emissions. This research establishes a theoretical framework for prefabricated concrete building waste management and provides the Chinese government with practical insights on optimizing policies for waste decarbonization in the dynamic landscape of prefabrication.

Analysis of road construction waste generation in developing economies: A focus on surfacing and sub-base construction projects in Sri Lanka

The motivation for this study was to develop simplified tools to estimate material wastage during road construction projects. In developing countries, there is a lack of information about material wastage factors (MWFs) in road construction projects. The purpose of this study is to reveal the MWFs of materials used in road construction. To investigate MWFs, statistics were collected from a sample of 58 road contracts concluded in the southern province of Sri Lanka, comprising 245 road construction projects. Of the selected sample, 80% of the road projects utilized wearing course (asphalt concrete), aggregate base course (ABC), cationic slow setting emulsion 1 (CSS1) and sand. The mean MWFs were calculated only for ABC, wearing course and CSS1 as 8.69%, 5.21% and 6.8%, respectively, because the authors could only achieve acceptable precision levels for these three types of materials. The coefficient of variation (CV) for all these three types of materials ranged from 25% to 3%. Based on collected data, this study proposes equations to predict waste generation for CSS1 and wearing course. Implementing the derived equations to predict waste generation can aid in efficient planning and help construction companies to move towards more sustainable practices.

The Uncertainty of Reusable Building Components/Materials A Subsidiary of Circular Economy in the Africa Construction Sector: The Issue of Affordable Housing in Kenya

There is growing interest in the adaptation of circular economy approaches in the construction sector, for developing African countries like Kenya with an increase in construction activities leading to more generation of construction wastes. The approach of circularity presents an alternative to reuse these construction or demolition wastes thereby lowering environmental risks and providing for a lower price for building components/materials required for affordable building projects. However, there is little, or no information on these reusable building components/materials, which lowers the confidence by construction stakeholders in using them. No information on its possible new life longevity (durability), its possible maintenance budget, and no means of enabling a design team to plan for its acquisition (accessibility) in a design project. This paper adopted a review of previous literature on these topics to search for possible solutions to the research questions, of which some literature provided only a list of requirements needed to give a level of information to reusable building elements. The paper went further to provide proposals for an information catalogue that would enable the insertion of reusable building elements’ Indicators of service (availability, reliability, and maintainability) obtainable from experience with the elements. Also, a format for a maintenance budget plan would be required during the new service life of the reused element. And a means of simulation using the Monte Carlo simulation tool to obtain reliable viability of access to reusable building elements in a transitional building in its design stage. These proposals would have to be put into practice to ascertain their effectiveness, meanwhile, other areas of further studies are provided in the paper.

UNDERLYING AND RANKING FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO CONSTRUCTION WASTE GENERATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

In recent decades, there has been a notable upswing in the production of construction and waste, posing significant challenges to the construction industry and jeopardizing environmental sustainability. The successful implementation of construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) strategies is hindered by various barriers within the construction industry. Addressing this issue requires identifying and prioritizing key factors contributing to waste generation. Consequently, this study seeks to pinpoint and assess the factors influencing construction waste generation in the Turkish construction sector. Initially, a systematic literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification of 54 factors. Subsequently, a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to project architects, project engineers, site supervisors, and contractors within the Turkish construction industry, with 162 respondents. The collected data underwent reliability analyses using SPSS 22 software. Following this, index of relative importance (IRI) analyses was employed to rank the identified factors. Ultimately, this study establishes the most significant factors responsible for construction waste generation in the Turkish construction industry.

Supporting zero-waste building: A novel spatial explicit material flow analysis model for construction waste

The accurate quantification of construction waste (CW) is prerequisite for achieving zero-waste in the building sector. This study employs a Spatial Material Flow Analysis model considering building life cycle to estimate the spatio-temporal dynamics of CW in Nanjing, China, over two decades. Additionally, it employs an ARIMA model for forecasting CW generation over the forthcoming decade. During 2000 to 2020, Nanjing's CW witnessed a CW increase from 0.8 to 59.0 Tg, predominantly comprising non-metallic materials. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution of CW has widened, accompanied by the emergence of numerous CW hotspots, in parallel with economic and population growth. Future projections suggest a continuous yet decelerating increase in CW generation, highlighting a significant opportunity for resource recovery. The application of this hybrid approach not only enhances CW management accuracy but also supports the broader goal of fostering sustainable building practices. This research expects to enlighten the stakeholders committed to advancing sustainable construction and waste management strategies in the context of zero-waste buildings.

An evaluation model for city-scale construction and demolition waste management effectiveness: A case study in China

The growing generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW) has emerged as a prominent challenge on global environmental agendas. However, the effectiveness of CDW management (CDWM) strategies varies among cities. Existing literature predominantly evaluates the effectiveness of CDWM at the project level, offering a localized perspective that fails to capture a city’s comprehensive CDWM profile. This localized focus has certain limitations. To fill this gap in city-scale evaluations, this study introduces a novel model for assessing CDWM effectiveness at the municipal level. An empirical investigation was conducted across 11 cities within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) to operationalize this model. The model defines five distinct levels of CDWM effectiveness. Findings indicate that Hong Kong consistently achieves the highest level (level I), while the majority of cities fall within levels III and IV. This pattern suggests that CDWM effectiveness in the GBA is moderately developed, with uneven progress in CDW management outcomes and supporting systems. Essentially, there is a lack of synchronous development of CDWM results and guarantee systems. The proposed evaluation model enriches existing CDWM research field and offers a framework that may inform future studies in other countries.

Data-driven prediction of construction and demolition waste generation using limited datasets in developing countries: an optimized extreme gradient boosting approach

Data-driven prediction of construction and demolition waste generation using limited datasets in developing countries: an optimized extreme gradient boosting approach

A construction waste landfill dataset of two districts in Beijing, China from high resolution satellite images

Construction waste is unavoidable in the process of urban development, causing serious environmental pollution. Accurate assessment of municipal construction waste generation requires building construction waste identification models using deep learning technology. However, this process requires high-quality public datasets for model training and validation. This study utilizes Google Earth and GF-2 images as the data source to construct a specific dataset of construction waste landfills in the Changping and Daxing districts of Beijing, China. This dataset contains 3,653 samples of the original image areas and provides mask-labeled images in the semantic segmentation domains. Each pixel within a construction waste landfill is classified into 4 categories of the image areas, including background area, vacant landfillable area, engineering facility area, and waste dumping area. The dataset contains 237,115,531 pixels of construction waste and 49,724,513 pixels of engineering facilities. The pixel-level semantic segmentation labels are provided to quantify the construction waste yield, which can serve as the basic data for construction waste extraction and yield estimation both for academic and industrial research.

Comparative Study of the Crushing Strengths of Recycled Coarse Aggregates Concretes and Natural Aggregates Concretes

Recycled Coarse Aggregate (RCA) is a recycled concrete material from construction sites, which is being reused for fresh concrete production. The use of this material reduces quarrying of Natural Coarse Aggregate (NCA). Properties of RCA are variable depending on the properties of parent concrete. In a fast-growing economy, the generation of construction waste has increased considerably, and social and environmental concerns on recycling the waste have accordingly increased. Construction Engineers have resorted to recycling these demolition wastes to maintain a friendly green environment. This study compared the crushing strengths of Recycled Coarse Aggregate concrete with Natural Aggregate concretes. The RCA was obtained from demolished drains and culverts while the Natural Coarse Granite Aggregate was from Akamkpa, Cross River State, Nigeria. Using RCA and NCA of maximum size 20mm, concrete cubes were prepared for compressive strength tests. Other properties of the aggregates were determined. Three mix proportions of 1:1½:3, 1:2:4 and 1:3:6 at water cement ratio of 0.6 were utilized and the specimens were tested at curing ages of 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. Results indicated that RCA produced concretes with strengths lower than those using NCA. RCA concretes also had slumps lower than those of NCA concretes.

Investigating the Determinants of Construction Stakeholders’ Intention to Use Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Products Based on the S-O-R Model in China

In China, the annual generation of construction and demolition waste (CDW) has been steadily increasing, accompanied by a generally low recycling rate. To promote sustainable development, there is an urgent need to enhance the recycling of CDW. This paper aims to investigate the determinants of construction stakeholders’ intention to use CDW recycling products in China. The stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, integrating the technological–organizational–environmental (TOE) framework, personal perceptions, personal traits, and the intention to use, was chosen as our theoretical model. Through an analysis of 272 valid questionnaires, the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was utilized to evaluate the model and test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicated that personal traits are the most influential factor shaping construction stakeholders’ intention to use, followed by personal perceptions, while external stimuli exert no direct significant impact on the intention to use. Nevertheless, personal traits and personal perceptions play a significant mediating role in the relationship between external stimuli and the intention to use, forming a noteworthy serial chain mediation. The research findings imply that in China, bolstering personal traits plays a critical role in guiding and promoting the intention to use CDW recycling products.

Investigating Environmental Efficiency Upgrading Path of Construction Waste Based on Configuration Analysis

The rapid development of urbanization and large-scale engineering projects have led to the output of a large quantity of construction waste, which also puts great pressure on the environment. Environmental efficiency, as one of the criteria for measuring sustainable development, can be used to measure the impact of enterprises, industries, or regions on the environment when creating economic value. This research takes 30 provinces in China as samples and uses configuration analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methods to analyze the combined effects of factors affecting the environmental efficiency of construction waste generation, to find upgrading paths to improve environmental efficiency. The results indicate that five configurations can promote provinces to achieve high environmental efficiency, which can be classified into three types: population density, technological innovation, and policy economy. These three configurations reveal the comprehensive impact of systematic correlations among population, technology, policy, and economic factors on environmental efficiency improvements. This research provides a certain theoretical reference for exploring the influencing factors of environmental efficiency and provides theoretical guidance for selecting different paths to improve the environmental efficiency of construction waste in regions with different social conditions.

Elucidation of the Influence of Construction Waste Causative Factors and Strategies towards Sustainable Construction Waste Management Improvement

The uncontrolled generation of construction waste happened due to the rapid development of the construction industry become one of the significant environmental issues in Malaysia. Therefore, sustainability was applied in construction waste management strategies. Sustainability in construction waste management emphasized the relevance of co-development in the economy, environment, and society and helped to achieve harmony in the economy, environment, and society. Therefore, this research was conducted with the aims to identify the causative factors of construction waste, determine the construction waste management strategies, and discover the relationship between the causative factors of construction waste and construction waste management strategies towards sustainable construction waste management improvement. In this regard, this research was conducted quantitatively using the questionnaire as a research medium to obtain feedback from the construction organizations on the causative factors and management strategies of construction waste towards sustainable construction waste management improvement. The developed questionnaire was distributed via a virtual method among project managers as representatives of construction organizations operating in Penang. As a result, 29.6 percent of the response rate was accepted. The analysis showed that the management factor, regulation factor and prevention strategy was important factors and strategies for sustainable construction waste management improvement and found that there was a strong relationship between them. Finally, this research outlined strategies to achieve sustainable construction waste management improvement in the construction industry and create a better environment.

Current 3R Practices on Construction Waste Minimization in Construction Site

The rise of the construction industry nowadays has a lot to do with the production of industrial waste. The needs of the construction industry whether for developing countries or developed countries is something that cannot be avoided. The main objectives were to find the main causes of construction waste generation, assess the level of awareness of 3R concepts and to evaluate the current approach used at the construction site in reducing construction waste. The study involves companies involved in the construction industry, namely architects, consultants and contractors. The research method used is a questionnaire to the construction industry. Results show that most respondents are aware of the benefits of 3R practices but most of them also do not practice the 3R due to lack of knowledge. The finding of this research is the construction waste can be reducing after practising the 3R.

Blockchain-Enabled Construction and Demolition Waste Management: Advancing Information Management for Enhanced Sustainability and Efficiency

The construction industry is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions, primarily due to the generation of substantial construction and demolition waste. However, the current practices in construction and demolition waste management (CDWM) face various information management challenges that undermine their overall effectiveness. Correspondingly, this research proposes the integration of blockchain technology as a strategic solution to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of CDWM. Despite the potential of blockchain in revolutionizing CDWM, research in this area remains limited. To address such a gap, this study adopts a design science action research methodology to integrate the use of blockchain technology into CDWM. Specifically, this study has creatively introduced the blockchain-based data supply chain to address the principal–agent problem in CDWM and develop a novel blockchain-enabled framework for CDWM. Additionally, a six-layer system architecture for the blockchain-based CDWM information system has been developed. This integration holds the promise of streamlining and empowering CDWM processes and thereby improving the administration and regulation of CDWM. Notably, the utilization of blockchain technology also presents an innovative opportunity for carbon reduction and offsetting within the construction industry. This research makes a substantial contribution to the field by introducing a novel approach to address information management challenges in CDWM, thereby promoting sustainable practices in the construction industry.

Environmental sustainability and cost performances of construction and demolition waste management scenarios: A case study of timber and concrete houses in Thailand

Circular economy (CE) is becoming a vital strategy to tackle two major environmental challenges of building and construction sector, viz., intensive resource consumption and massive construction and demolition waste (CDW) generation. The study assessed six circular economy scenarios for CDW management of concrete and timber houses in Thailand compared to the base case (landfill). Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing were conducted to illustrate the influence of CE strategies on environmental sustainability and cost performance. Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) was evaluated to determine the circularity performances of material use for the CE scenarios. The 100% recycling scenario resulted in 124% and 166–169% reductions of the mineral resource scarcity impact as compared to the conventional CDW management for the concrete and timber houses, respectively. For the concrete house, 100% recycling scenario resulted in the lowest life cycle costs (when combining both internal cost and externalities). On the other hand, the 100% recycling scenario of timber house would bring about the highest cost due to the energy cost. However, for the timber house, energy recovery scenario provided the lowest impact values on global warming, ozone formation, and terrestrial acidification. The internal costs of implementing the CE measures are higher for timber than for concrete. The MCI value for 100% recycling scenario was about 0.55; however, it can be increased to 0.73 (timber house) and 0.75 (concrete house) if the utility lifetime of building materials were extended. The results show the integrating the CE for CDW management can bring benefit to both environmental sustainability and cost performance.