Recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste sustainable approach

Abstract

Urbanisation is putting huge pressure for the efficient utilisation of the existing land. Old structures are being demolished for proving the way to new and modern structures. Land has become a scarce commodity in the urban cities and with increase in Floor Area Ratio (FAR) to accommodate more population causing demolition of existing structures for reconstruction. Sometimes these existing structures has not yet completed their design life yet they are demolished for new one. The debris that is produced in demolition of these structures are in huge amount and disposal of this Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste in sustainable manner is the biggest challenge today. Recycling and reuse of such a large waste is need of an hour. This paper focuses on current trend in this field by elaborating various ways to use these waste both from the laboratory research scale as well as commercially available technologies around the globe. Use of these C&D waste save huge amount of natural resources, reduce CO2 footprint, Reduce environmental impact, Create space in urban areas by its reuse, reduction of large space required for dumping sites and creation of job and business opportunities across the globe. This paper provide detail of recycling facility in Delhi, India along with technology used in other countries like Japan, Korea etc. This paper also elaborate on recycling potential of these C&D waste, challenges in processing and using C&D waste and finally guidelines for sustainable use of these waste.