Estimating the amount of building-related construction and demolition waste in China

Abstract

With the deepening of the economic reform in China, a large volume of construction activities, which in turn will lead to a huge amount of building-related construction and demolition (C&D) waste when new structures are built and when existing structures are renovated or demolished. However, it is an enigma why such statistics of waste generation are absent from the literature in spite of their importance to C&D waste management. This paper aims at estimating the amount of building-related C&D waste in China. It is estimated that approximately 2.19 billion tons of building-related C&D materials were generated in China during 2011even without considering the amount from renovation of existing buildings. It should be recognized that the estimates have some level of uncertainty, and the results should be viewed in that light. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.