The waste and environmental impact of building construction and demolition in Hubei province based on dynamic material flow analysis

Rapid industrialization and urbanization has been occurring in China since the introduction of the opening-up policy in 1978. The demands of building construction have increased rapidly, especially in the housing sectors in... [ view full abstract ]

Rapid industrialization and urbanization has been occurring in China since the introduction of the opening-up policy in 1978. The demands of building construction have increased rapidly, especially in the housing sectors in China. Large amounts of construction materials have been required in building construction, especially steel and cement. Continued cement and steel production will require heavy raw material resource consumption and will emit a great deal of carbon dioxide. In this study, the waste and environmental impact of building and demolition in Hubei province is analyzed from 1978 to 2050 based on the dynamic material flow analysis. The results indicate that building will increase sharply from 1978 to 2050, and the construction waste will reached a peak of 436.8 million tons included 336.7 million tons waste concrete, 79.2 million tons waste brick, 10.7 million tons waste wood and 10.2 million tons steel scrap in 2049. The material stock of the concrete, brick and steel is 12.69 billion tons, 1.42billon tons and 5.64 billion tons, respectively. To control the problem of the construction and demolition waste of Hubei Province in future, the composite disposal technology is the best option compared with other waste treatment and disposal technology and has the least environmental impacts and carbon dioxide emission. Furthermore, prolonging the lifetime of buildings and strengthening materials recycling are very effective methods to avoid more raw material consumption, waste generation and carbon dioxide emission.