Decoupling economic growth from construction waste generation: Comparative analysis between the EU and China

Construction waste generation estimates of institutional building projects: Leveraging waste hauling tickets

Construction and demolition waste generated in the Republic of Korea accounts for about half of the annual waste. The generation of construction waste is expected to increase gradually due to obsolete structures and reconstructions that have reached the end of their service life. Considering the geographical characteristics of Korea, where the land area is small and about 70% of which is mountainous, landfilling of waste is absolutely limited. Therefore, resource circulation such as recycling of construction waste is an urgent and important task. This paper overviews the current status of construction waste generation, treatment, and the flow of government policies in Korea. Furthermore, the current status, limitations, and stakeholder efforts regarding recycling of recycled aggregate from construction waste were reviewed. Data used in this paper were mostly collected from government reports, construction waste regulations, and research papers. The results show that construction waste management systems have been enacted and revised in line with social needs, and each stakeholder is making an effort to use the construction waste practically. The findings can provide valuable examples for countries that lack construction waste management systems.Graphic abstract

The construction sector is one of the main modifiers of the environment, since in its activities there is, essentially, the exploitation of natural resources, generating a large amount of waste. The objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of management parameters (term, contracting and costs) and constructive parameters (building standard, type of foundation and type of masonry) in the generation of construction waste. The methodology consisted of the following steps: definition of the parameters to be analyzed for the generation of waste in 15 works; data collection and processing and, finally, data dispersion analysis through the boxplot. The class was predominant A waste, 89.2% of the total generated; among class B waste, gypsum is more prominent, with 55% of the waste generated; in class C the mixed materials are predominant, with 64%. Regarding the analyzed parameters, the ones that contributed the most to the generation of civil construction waste (CCW) were: high work pattern (48%); incorporation hiring regime (58%); intermediate execution time between 36 and 45 months (49%); the foundation of the shoe type (36%); sealing masonry with ceramic blocks in the peripheries and gypsum blocks internally (58%).

The construction industry is known as one of the biggest generators of solid waste. Considering this, attention needs to be paid to construction and demolition (C&D) waste. Lebanon has experienced many situations that have increased the generation of C&D waste. Therefore, it is essential to manage C&D waste. This research aims to assess and analyse the importance of waste management plans and their impact on the generation of construction and demolition waste in Lebanon. For this purpose, an extensive literature review has been carried out, and a questionnaire survey consisting of five sections has been developed. Factors were ranked by using 5-point Likert scales. Additionally, four optional open-ended questions were also included in the survey for qualitative data collection. A survey questionnaire was sent to 80 Lebanese experts, and 50 questionnaires were returned. Most of the responses (i.e., consultants and academics) were from the private sector; results showed that respondents to this survey were biased for their expertise. Reliability and ranking analysis were performed on the collected data. It was found that “site management and supervision-related factors” are the main sources of C&D waste. The main barrier to implement 3R was the “lack of awareness and knowledge”, and the most critical success factor was “waste management regulations”. There is lack of data on construction waste in Lebanon. Therefore, there is a need to conduct research on construction waste management in Lebanon, which is the subject of the current investigation. This research is expected to generate benefits for the construction industry in Lebanon and the surrounding region.

The EU Response to COVID-19: From Reactive Policies to Strategic Decision-Making.

Inclusive growth and health outcomes improvement constitute main drivers of sustainable economic growth and development. This study examines the location of Turkey among the member of European Union (EU) countries in terms of inclusive growth and health outcome indicators. For this aim, inclusive economic growth indicators, that are consist of six dimensions of World Governance Indicators, belongs to the World Bank and two different health outcome indicators are used, for 28 EU countries and Turkey. Study variables are examined for two different periods, and the location of Turkey among EU countries analyzed by using hierarchical cluster analysis, for the periods of 2002-2007 and 2008-2016, which are called “high-quality” and “low-quality” economic growth, respectively. Clustering results shows that, the position of Turkey is next to the EU countries, which are good in terms of inclusive growth and health outcome indicators and representing root and old members of the EU for the period of 2002-2007; however it is far away from these countries for the period of 2008-2016. Study results emphasize that, it is incontrovertible that Turkey should internalize a policy and implementation culture of giving priority to transparency and accountability, pro-poor growing, improving employment and productivity, encouraging technology and innovation, prioritizing improvement of health status of the population, to achieve similar location with EU countries which have developed economies and have high welfare status.

Estimation of construction waste generation based on an improved on-site measurement and SVM-based prediction model: A case of commercial buildings in China

Increasing construction waste has been a severe environmental problem globally. Adopting new construction methods such as modular construction is considered as an effective measure to reduce construction waste. However, few studies have examined the potential of modular construction in construction waste reduction. This study aims to measure the typical construction waste performance of modular buildings and identify the potential of construction waste reduction by adopting the modular construction method. The research was conducted through case study with seven modular building projects with the combination of literature review and empirical data. The construction waste from modular construction and other construction approaches was cross compared and analyzed. Results show that modular construction can effectively reduce construction waste generation, evidenced in the overall onsite construction waste generation index of modular buildings varying from 9 to 63.9 kg per m2 construction floor area with an average of 33.7 kg/m2, less than that of panelized and traditional in-situ construction. Compared to traditional in-situ construction, modular buildings can lead to around 80% reduction of onsite overall construction waste on average. From the studied modular building projects, a high reuse and recycling rate was found, in which timber waste and metal waste could reach up to 100%. This paper provides evidence that modular construction can effectively reduce construction waste generation compared with panelized and traditional in-situ construction. The findings should help encourage the uptake of modular construction in the building industry.KeywordsModular constructionConstruction wasteModular integrated constructionPrefabricated constructionHigh-rise building

The amount of construction waste (CW) at building sites is highly variable, for instance the CW generation index ranges between 50-300 dm3 per square meters of gross floor area. Today there is still a lack of knowledge about variables (building design, construction process, construction technologies, etc.) affecting the CW generation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of multi-storey building design and some construction processes on the CW generation indexes. The CW generation was analysed for two groups of buildings with two different construction processes; one with plumbing and electric services installed inside the masonry element and the other with plumbing and electric services installed onto the masonry element and covered with water-resistant drywall system (reducing the construction waste generation). The gross floor area directly affects the amount of executed construction works in a building site. Since the most important works (concrete, masonry and cladding) for CW generation is related to gross floor area, gross floor of buildings is also directly related to CW generation. For buildings with gross area varying from 20,000 to 80,000 m2, there is a reduction of approximately 18% of construction waste only changing the plumbing and electric services installation system, from embedded in the masonry element to installed onto the masonry element and covered with water-resistant drywall system.

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

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to study the global experience of regulatory and legal regulation of construction and demolition waste management to determine measures to ensure the use of secondary raw materials from construction waste in Ukraine for the restoration of objects damaged and destroyed as a result of military actions and the construction of new buildings. The results of the study of the experience of developed countries regarding the attraction of construction and demolition waste for reuse and processing into secondary raw materials are presented. Analytical studies have established that Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council provides for a target increase by 2020 of the share of non-hazardous construction waste prepared for reuse and recycling to at least 70% by weight, as well as promotion of recycling by selective removal of materials and creation of sorting systems. The direct requirements of the regulatory and legal regulation of construction waste management during the construction of facilities are outlined. In some states, direct requirements for handling construction waste have been established: in new construction, a certain percentage of products from recycled waste must be used; ban on landfills for construction waste that can be used for processing into secondary raw materials; the minimum area of buildings, during the construction of which mandatory disposal of waste is regulated; the minimum volumes of construction work are legally defined, the excess of which determines the need for builders to sort and process construction and demolition waste. The lack of specific target indicators for the collection, sorting, processing of construction and demolition waste, as well as the use of secondary raw materials obtained from them, was emphasized in the normative legal acts of Ukraine on waste management.

Municipal plastic recycling at two areas in China and heavy metal leachability of plastic in municipal solid waste

Investigating the determinants of contractor’s construction and demolition waste management behavior in Mainland China

Solid industrial waste can be widely used in construction to obtain such valuable materials: as a filler and binder for the production of concrete, dry building mixtures and other building materials, for the production of building materials with protective properties against electromagnetic radiation and static electricity, for the manufacture anode earthing switches, etc. Therefore, the determination of the regression dependence describing the dynamics of the generation of construction and demolition waste in Vinnytsia region to solve the problem of solid industrial waste management is an urgent scientific and technical problem. The aim of the study is to determine, using regression analysis, the dependence that describes the dynamics of construction and demolition waste generation in Vinnytsia region to solve the problem of solid industrial waste management. The study used the method of regression analysis of the results of one-factor experiments and other paired dependencies with the choice of the best type of function from the 16 most common options according to the criterion of the maximum correlation coefficient. The regression was carried out on the basis of linearizing transformations, allowing reducing the nonlinear dependence to linear. The determination of the coefficients of the regression equation was carried out by the least squares method using the developed computer program "RegAnaliz", protected by a certificate of registration of copyright for the work. Adequate regression dependence was obtained that describes the dynamics of construction and demolition waste generation in Vinnytsia region. A graphical relationship has been built that describes the dynamics of construction and demolition waste generation in Vinnytsia region and allows to visually illustrate this dynamics, to show sufficient convergence of theoretical and actual results. It was found that in Vinnytsia region during the period of 2014—2018 the formation of a mass of waste from construction and demolition decreased hyperbolically. Such a mass of construction and demolition waste generation in Vinnytsia region in 2025 is predicted — 331 tons, and in 2030 — 223 tons.

Seven-dimensional automated construction waste quantification and management framework: Integration with project and site planning