An analysis of factors influencing waste minimisation and use of recycled materials for the construction of residential buildings

Residential building construction activities, whether it is new build, repair or maintenance, consumes a large amount of natural resources. This has a negative impact on the environment in the form depleting natural resources, increasing waste production and pollution. Previous research has identified the benefits of preventing or reducing material waste, mainly in terms of the limited available space for waste disposal, and escalating costs associated with landfills, waste management and disposal and their impact on a  building company's profitability. There has however been little development internationally of innovative waste management strategies aimed at reducing the resource requirement of the construction process. The authors contend that embodied energy is a useful indicator of resource value. Using data provided by a regional high-volume residential builder in the State of Victoria, Australia, this paper identifies the various types of waste that are generated from the construction of a typical standard house. It was found that in this particular case, wasted amounts of materials were less than those found previously by others for cases in capital cities (5-10 per cent), suggesting that waste minimisation strategies are successfully being implemented. Cost and embodied energy savings from using materials with recycled content are potentially more beneficial in terms of embodied energy and resource depletion than waste minimisation strategies.

Promoting the reuse and recycling of building demolition materials

The demolition of constructed structures has earned a negative reputation for the construction industry due to the enormous amount of waste that is sent to landfills. Demolition waste reuse and recycling is, therefore, significant; it is a new and illustrative perspective on demolition waste management from the viewpoint of the building material lifecycle. It is discovered that demolition waste reuse and recycling plays important roles in value transformation for building material lifecycle, local economics,
sustainable environment and nature resource conservation. In this research article, the authors aim to pinpoint demolition waste management in the lifecycle of building materials, and to examine various economic and environmental aspects of demolition waste reuse and recycling. In addition, the barriers, limitations and solutions for improving the implementation of demolition waste reuse and recycling are discussed in the article.

Value analysis of just-in-time demolition approach

The recent deconstruction approach for demolition projects promotes reusing and recycling materials. However, the demolition project is interrupted and slowed down while the project team wait for the waste exchange process. Wasted materials generated from the demolition project have to be stored on demolition site or extra depository. Cost and time might be lost for the inventory of wasted materials and products. Just-in-Time (JIT) is a matured method widely used in manufacture industry as well as construction industry. It is utilised to reduce the inventory of both raw materials and final products. It is also used to shorten production cycle and improve the quality of the products. The JIT philosophy can be applied into demolition project so that the inventory of wasted materials can be eliminated and the project time can be shortened. To implement JIT demolition, the waste exchange process can be performed before the wasted materials are generated from the project. Material owners and demanders can virtually plan for waste handling before the demolition project is physically implemented. As a result, waste materials can be sent to demanders through transportation right after they are produced from the project. Applying JIT philosophy in demolition projects can effectively reduce the inventory of wasted materials and the amount of demolition waste to be sent to landfills. Therefore the cost and time of the project are reduced, and the quality of final delivered materials is improved.

Salvage material logistics management for building demolition project

Building demolition imposes substantial environmental impacts. In particular, large amount of demolition wastes are disposed to landfills. A solution to ease the situation is to maximally reuse and recycle waste building material. Management philosophies such as Just-in-time are applied into demolition project management in order to promote reuse and recycling of demolition wastes. Transportation logistics, widely applied in the manufacturing industry, is ideal to be adopted into demolition projects to optimise waste material production, inventorying, and transportation. In particular, it enables right types and amounts of dismantled building materials to be transferred to right location, and at right time, as required by material demanders. Consequently, waste reuse and recycling can be facilitated. Furthermore, logistics management helps the demolition project team to reduce cost, shorten project duration, and satisfy material demanders. Transportation planning concerns thorough preparation technically and managerially on the demolition site for transportation activities. Information exchange is playing a significant role in delivering and sharing information among project participants, including building owner, demolition project team, potential material demanders, and transporters. This research paper aims to identify the role of transportation logistics in a building demolition project and to analyse inventory control, transportation, and various technical aspects of logistic management for demolition wastes.

Developing Abu Dhabi's solid waste sustainability index (ADSWMI)

Fast urbanization and population and economic growth led to increased solid waste generation in Abu Dhabi in the last decades. Abu Dhabi generates 5.8 kg of municipal waste per day per person. This is well above the world average of 1.2 kg per day per person. Treatment and destination of the municipal solid waste is also problematic. Only 3.5% of the total municipal solid waste generation is recycled, and the remaining waste is disposed in landfills which are technically not adequate. In this context, sustainability indicators can play an important role in supporting decision makers in planning and managing the solid waste system. In this study, the waste management system in Abu Dhabi Emirate was analyzed through the implementation of a set of proposed sustainability indicators. The DSR Driving force-State-Response approach was used as the methodology to develop a framework for the context of Abu Dhabi. Twenty indicators, based on literature review and benchmarking, were divided into five categories: quantity & composition, environmental controls & resource management, construction & demolition waste, financial sustainability, and governances & policies. These indictors can be a baseline to assist decision makers to develop an integrated waste management system able to meet the high international standards and target in the field.

A history of wastewater irrigation in Melbourne, Australia

Reclamation of wastewater for irrigation has had an important role to play in Melbourne’s struggle to manage water resources as effectively as possible. Rapid growth within the first few years of the founding of the city led to a sanitary crisis, which provided the impetus for the construction of a large sewerage system. Interest in using the effluent from sewage treatment plants for irrigation gained attention in the late 1970s, but despite some activity in the early 1980s, it was not until 2005 that large-scale wastewater irrigation schemes became a reality. Successful to a degree, there have also been problems, and the future viability of one large irrigation scheme for commercial vegetable production is threatened by high salt concentrations in the treated wastewater. Greywater irrigation at the household level has also become commonplace in Melbourne over the last decade, but it is difficult to regulate and the health risks urgently need to be quantified. More recently, several third-pipe schemes, where treated wastewater is reticulated to households, have been commissioned with plans for many more, and treated stormwater is growing in popularity, particularly for irrigation of public open spaces.

Social capital and hygiene practices among the extreme poor in rural Bangladesh

We investigate the effect of social capital on hygiene practices pertaining to lives of the extreme poor in rural Bangladesh. Analysing a unique survey dataset for 5,600 extreme poor households, we document a significant positive effect of social capital on sanitary latrine use and wearing shoes/sandals at home for hygiene. We account for the endogeneity of social capital by instrumental variable estimation. Our findings emphasise the role of social capital in preventing common diseases through improving hygiene practices for the extreme poor, who usually lack access to medical services in the event of illness, which has important policy implications.