Strategies for Efficient Handling and Economic Circularity for Construction and Demolition Waste in India

Abstract

The construction materials industry has been acclaimed as an enormous economy and is expected to continue to rise in future. Over the past few years, India's urban built environment has been expanding rapidly to accommodate the increasing urban population and to meet the rising aspirations of upscaling standards of living. In addition to new projects, redevelopment works are also prominent amongst the construction activities being undertaken all across our urban areas. The large-scale construction and demolition waste (C&D waste) is generated inadvertently from on-going construction activities with no major sustainable interventions or practices in place ever since. The state of art overview of C&D waste management practices and related legislation in India and select countries abroad provides sufficient opportunity for introducing and promoting circular economy (CE) in C&D waste management. This can be done through direct reuse or by recycling/ repair /refurbishment in different stages of construction projects. Reports on key infrastructure projects suggest project delays and cost over-run due to shortage of fresh stocks of primary construction materials. Promoting design of products or components remanufactured using dismantled or recycled C&D waste would no longer let the C&D waste remain as a threat to sustainable environment. Instead, the industry would get geared up to produce high-quality secondary raw materials that can be fed back into production processes. This will not just reduce the reliance on primary resources for construction materials like stone, sand, etc. but also promote the new business models which will focus on waste prevention and ‘turning waste into resources’ by effectively and efficiently utilizing C&D waste in a sustainable manner. This will embed circular economy in the system and also make the process more sustainable. Present models for sustainability assessment are primarily based on statistical records of C&D waste quantities and they rarely include all three aspects of sustainability (economic, environmental and social). This paper proposes a conceptual model of efficient C&D waste management strategies considering all the three aspects of sustainability. A conceptual model has been developed using the barriers and motivating factors obtained from literature review for implementation of effective C&D waste management for circular economy. Using existing knowledge of the components of C&D waste management system and the positive or negative relationships between them the proposed conceptual model focuses on strategies, institutional arrangement and economic circularity for managing the C&D waste. The paper highlights the need for an institutional framework and suitable strategies for efficient handling of C&D Waste. The paper concludes with possible future directions and potential policy recommendations for optimizing C&D waste management in India.