Construction and Demolition Waste Management Strategies
Summary
Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) management encompasses the systematic reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of materials arising from building, renovation and demolition activities. Strategies range from design-stage minimisation and on-site segregation to off-site processing and material recovery, guided by a hierarchical approach that prioritises prevention, reuse and recycling over landfilling. Policy instruments – including regulatory thresholds, economic incentives and extended producer responsibility – work in concert with technological innovations such as automated sorting, advanced recycling processes and digital modelling to streamline resource flows. Collaborative frameworks among designers, contractors, waste operators and regulators underpin effective circular-economy implementation, fostering industrial symbiosis and benchmarking across jurisdictions. Practical examples include smart dismantling techniques for concrete and steel, closed-loop aggregate markets, and the integration of secondary materials into green building standards. Globally, these strategies not only reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and resource depletion but also stimulate local job creation and supply-chain resilience within the built environment.
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Construction and Demolition Waste Management Strategies publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in construction and demolition waste management strategies across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Construction and Demolition Waste (C&DW): Solid waste materials produced during construction, renovation and demolition activities.
Circular Economy: An economic model that seeks to eliminate waste and continually cycle resources through reuse, recycling and recovery.
Waste Hierarchy: A priority order for waste management actions, ranked from prevention and reuse through recycling to disposal.
Resource Recovery: The extraction and repurposing of valuable materials from waste streams for further industrial or commercial use.
References
- Pathways to circular construction: An integrated management of construction and demolition waste for resource recovery. Journal of Cleaner Production (2020).
- An overview of the waste hierarchy framework for analyzing the circularity in construction and demolition waste management in Europe. The Science of The Total Environment (2021).
- Circular Economy of Construction and Demolition Waste: A Literature Review on Lessons, Challenges, and Benefits. Materials (2021).
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