Integration of waste minimisation strategies into the design process of buildings

The construction industry is by far the greatest consumer of resources and waste producer of all industries in the UK; being responsible for 32% of total waste generation, which equates to three times the combined waste produced by all households. Consequently, construction waste management and minimisation became a priority in the EU and UK environmental policy programmes resulting in a combined plethora of government-driven waste related legislation and guidance documents to curb construction waste production. Similarly, an ever-increasing global research on construction waste has been conducted over the last decade ranging from ‘soft’ onsite waste auditing tools and methodologies to ‘hard’ material and recycling technologies. However, the current state-of-research is largely dominated by endeavours to manage waste that has already been produced. Very few studies have been undertaken on how architects could go about minimising waste through a change in design practices. Hence, this research set out to construct and validate a Designing out Waste (DoW) Framework to assist architects in embedding design waste reduction strategies in each design stage. [Continues.

Architect and contractor attitudes to waste minimisation

Around 420 million t of materials are used each year in the construction industry in the UK; however, only 360 million t are incorporated into products. Additionally, construction and demolition activities in the UK generated more than 150 million t of waste in 1998 comprising 40% from the manufacture of products and 60% from site-based activities, including an estimated 13 million t of unused materials. Research has been undertaken to assess UK architects’ and contractors’ attitudes towards waste minimisation, by investigating the integration of waste minimisation strategies into current design processes, examining contractors’ existing waste management practices and establishing responsibilities for, and barriers to, managing waste minimisation. A questionnaire survey based on specific and interrelated organisational waste minimisation issues was conducted with architects and contractors and revealed that very few attempts are made to reduce waste during the design process. On the other hand, the results show that contractors are pursuing a more proactive approach to manage on-site waste production through the development of environmental and waste management policies. The results reveal that poorly defined responsibilities are leading to confusion regarding who should control and monitor waste management. Both architects and contractors are constrained by internal and external factors, such as ‘waste accepted as inevitable’ and lack of interest from clients

Characterisation and use of glass fibre reinforced plastic waste powder as filler in styrene-butadiene rubber

Glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) wastes are often disposed of in landfill, incinerated or processed into powders. GRP waste powders can be recycled as filler in virgin polymers and should be characterised before they are added to avoid processing problems. A GRP waste powder was characterised using advanced measuring and analytical techniques. These included, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, particle size analyser, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalyser. The results showed that the waste powder consisted of irregular shaped particles and glass fibre fragments up to 700 m in size. Moreover, the waste powder was a thermoset polyester resin and its chemical constituents were calcium, oxygen, aluminium, silica, chlorine, bromine and carbon. When up to 25 parts per hundred rubber by weight of the GRP waste powder was mixed with a sulphur cure- based styrene-butadiene rubber, the viscosity, scorch and optimum cure times increased, and the rate of cure decreased. The tearing energy, elongation at break, tensile strength, stored energy density at break, and Young’s modulus of the vulcanisate improved as the loading of the waste powder was raised

Characterisation and use of glass fibre reinforced plastic waste powder as filler in styrene-butadiene rubber

Glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) wastes are often disposed of in landfill, incinerated or processed into powders. GRP waste powders can be recycled as filler in virgin polymers and should be characterised before they are added to avoid processing problems. A GRP waste powder was characterised using advanced measuring and analytical techniques. These included, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, particle size analyser, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalyser. The results showed that the waste powder consisted of irregular shaped particles and glass fibre fragments up to 700 m in size. Moreover, the waste powder was a thermoset polyester resin and its chemical constituents were calcium, oxygen, aluminium, silica, chlorine, bromine and carbon. When up to 25 parts per hundred rubber by weight of the GRP waste powder was mixed with a sulphur cure- based styrene-butadiene rubber, the viscosity, scorch and optimum cure times increased, and the rate of cure decreased. The tearing energy, elongation at break, tensile strength, stored energy density at break, and Young’s modulus of the vulcanisate improved as the loading of the waste powder was raised

Construction waste

The built environment consumes more natural resources than necessary and therefore generates a large amount of waste. A study by the World Resource Institute of material flows in a number of industrialised countries, showed that one half to three quarters of the annual material input to these societies was returned to the environment as waste within one year [1]. The international community started realising that resources are finite and that nature can no longer absorb the vast quantities of waste continually released to it. Achieving ‘zero waste’ will be a breakthrough strategy for a world in an environmental crisis, however, this is a highly challenging target in construction, but by involving and committing all stakeholders to reduce waste at source and developing efficient waste management strategies by reusing and recycling materials and components, can take the industry closer to the ‘zero waste’ vision, hence, moving from myth to reality. The aim of this chapter is to rethink construction waste management by re-engineering processes and practices to reduce construction waste at source. The chapter examines the concept of waste and definitions; discusses construction waste quantification and source evaluation; explores current thinking on construction waste research; and appraises the current construction waste management and minimisation status in the United Kingdom (UK) in terms of drivers and pressures for change, design and onsite practices, and challenges and enablers