This research aimed the characterization of the current production of construction waste in the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, and its impacts on the environment of the Amazon Region. The significance of this research work is to contribute to the improvement of the environmental management of waste in the construction sites of the city of Manaus, with the aim of preserving the Amazonian environment. This research also sought to characterize the existing problems in the environmental management of construction waste in four construction sites, with areas greater than 9,000 square meters. The methodology adopted was based on the application of an in situ survey in four construction sites in the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, administered by three companies representing the construction sector in the Amazon Region. Data were collected at the construction sites in question in the second half of 2018, regarding the types of construction waste produced, respective volumes, destination and associated costs. A comparison was made between constructed areas and volumes of waste produced, characterizing the current situation of construction waste production in the city of Manaus. After analysing the results obtained, it was concluded that due to the high associated costs, companies avoid recycling construction waste, and opt to discharge it in municipal or clandestine landfills, with significant environmental impacts. For this reason, a greater participation of the Public Administration is recommended regarding the adequate management of waste in construction sites, namely offering financial incentives for companies to promote the recycling and reuse of construction waste.

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This study was carried out in the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, a municipality surrounded by the Amazon Rainforest. This world heritage site, with a great diversity of fauna and flora, requires the care and attention of both the authorities and the population. The research involved studies on four construction sites to collect data regarding the waste generated and the environmental management practices, especially regarding waste disposal, considering that this item causes major environmental impacts in the Amazon Forest surrounding the city of Manaus. There is only one public landfill, managed by the Municipality of Manaus, and several clandestine landfills, which end up being the final disposal of many construction waste due to lack of inspection and population neglect. The consequences are serious for the Amazon rainforest that suffers the impact of the pollution generated by these residues, such as plastic, paper, metal, and debris which is a major contaminant since it may contain paints, solvents, oils and other materials toxic to nature. Two of the construction sites under study were residential buildings and the other two were thermoelectric power plants (industrial). After data collection through interviews, statistical studies were carried out to analyze and discuss the results obtained, aiming to make the characterization of the current production of construction waste in the city of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, and understand how these wastes affect the environment of the Amazon Forest. The collected data enabled the identification of the types of construction waste produced, their respective volumes, and their environmental management practices regarding reuse, sale or disposal. After analyzing the results, it was concluded that the sampled construction companies do not reuse nor recycle construction waste, and discard them in municipal or clandestine landfills. To minimize the identified problem regarding the disposal of construction waste in the city of Manaus, a proposal for the environmental management of construction site waste was developed through mobile application technology, with the aim of mitigating the environmental impacts of these wastes in nature. The mobile application serves as a tool for environmental managers in construction sites, and even for citizens who want to make a renovation in their home and do not know how to allocate the generated construction waste in a responsible and sustainable way. The mobile application was developed on the Android platform and had as premises the main construction waste identified in the construction companies studied in the city of Manaus, which would be plastic, paper, metals, rubble, and demolition remains, such as broken bricks, broken tiles, damaged wood, coatings, paints, mortar and other debris, with potential for contamination and pollution of the environment. The structure of the computer program was developed in order to enable the purchase, sale, exchange, recycling or donation of construction waste through the mobile application itse...

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Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) cause environmental impacts in a worldwide scale. The existing international concern regarding the adequate management of CDW is justified by the large amount of this waste produced in a daily basis, together with its potential hazardous effects on ecosystems and human health. In countries with growing economies, like Brazil, it is of the utmost importance to promote sustainability-oriented practices that can co-exist with economic development. In this scope, the present research proposes strategies regarding the management of CDW based on the Circular Economy principles, focusing the case study of the municipality of Manaus, in the centre of the Amazon Forest. The characterization of the reference situation regarding CDW management in Manaus revealed several deficiencies, namely the lack of reuse and recycling opportunities, the unsupervised disposal of CDW in illegal landfills, together with insufficient surveillance procedures and inadequate policies from regional authorities like the Manaus City Hall and the Amazon’s Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy (CREA-AM). The acknowledgement of these problems led to the identification of improvement opportunities and to the development and operationalization of Circular Economy promotion strategies: valorisation of CDW through the enhancement of reuse and recycling opportunities, operationalized through a mobile phone application; inclusion of sensibilization and surveillance practices regarding professional activities related to CDW management on the CREA-AM inspection plan; and the proposal of alterations in the municipal policies regarding CDW disposal in the public landfill. These strategies have been implemented in the Manaus municipality, but are easily adaptable to other Brazilian municipalities and even to other countries’ realities.