A review of smart technology usage in construction and demolition waste management

Abstract

The management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, a major part of solid waste, is increasingly become a critical challenge in the quest of social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Innovative and smart technologies are emerging to provide inevitable benefits because of their capacity to enable digitisation, automation, and integration of Solid Waste Management (SWM) processes. Nevertheless, the application of such technologies in Construction and Demolition Waste Management (CDWM) has not gained the appropriate attention. This study aims to draw insights into the current and potential use of smart technologies in CDWM. A literature review-based approach surveyed both academic and applied publications to analyse the current and potential use of smart technologies in both SWM and CDWM. Altogether, 75 peer-reviewed articles and technical white papers were analysed. It was found that the usage of smart technologies is much advanced in SWM and the adoption is still at the prototype stage in CDWM. The results emphasise that the integration of smart technologies into multiple processes of CDWM would overcome many issues related to waste minimisation and management including waste estimation, waste reporting, and data management and waste diversion. The framework developed in this study contributes to the understanding of the potential role of each category of technologies in improving the waste management processes in the C&D sector. This review is useful to waste management practitioners, regulatory bodies and the government to understand the benefits of emerging technologies and to the development of effective strategies and future training programmes.

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