A review of construction waste data and reporting systems used in Australia

Abstract

The construction industry is well recognised for the generation of a significant amount of waste which in turn has led the management of waste data as an important task of waste management. Waste data is essential not only for promoting effective waste management practices but also for the development and implementation of effective waste policies, legislations, and national standards. This paper aims to evaluate and understand the different waste data and reporting systems used in Australia. The outcomes of this study are based on the literature analysis of secondary data. The review revealed that most of the states and territories use a centralised waste data collection and reporting system and the use of such a system varies between states and territories due to the variation in waste definition, classification and estimation practices. This, in turn, hinders the development of effective waste management policies, relevant waste management programmes and as well as the establishment of domestic and international market platforms for recovered waste materials, attracting new circular business models. Consequently, the results inform the unyielding need to develop an efficient waste data management system. Blockchain as a decentralised data management technology could considerably improve the waste data management practices including waste data collection, reporting, and auditing and contribute to driving a shift towards the circular economy through circularity of waste information. Future research is aimed to develop a decentralised waste data management system as part of the development of a blockchaintechnology based waste trading platform