Week 7 Construction Waste

The construction industry produces a large amount of construction waste every year. According to statistics, China has a total construction area of more than 400 square meters in 2006, and the existing building area produced at least 2 billion tons of construction waste. The number of construction waste has accounted for 30% ~ 40% of the total municipal waste. Moreover, the pollution of construction waste is equivalent to two times of the automobile exhaust gas.

Construction waste is mostly solid waste including scattered mortar, concrete, scrap metal, bamboo, wood, waste decoration materials and a variety of packaging materials and other waste. Construction waste is a kind of resources that putting in the wrong place. The waste wood, which is removed from the building, can be used directly as a wood. The waste wood, sawdust and wood chips of the construction waste can be used as fuel, covering the compost and erosion in protective engineering. Waste wood can be used for the production of composite materials. Compared with ordinary concrete, it has the advantages of light weight, small thermal conductivity, so it can be used as insulation material. Broken bricks can be used to produce concrete blocks. After the concrete block is broken, it can be used in the production of recycled concrete, recycled cement, or as roadbed material. The production of cement with waste concrete as materials can save a lot of limestone, natural stones, iron resources and also be less coal combustion.

Reference List:

Ye, Y. and Zhang, D. (2015). Current situation and suggestions of construction waste disposal. [online] Wenku.baidu.com. Available at: http://wenku.baidu.com/view/a7df2c72bb68a98271fefa99.html?from=search [Accessed 23 Apr. 2016].