Excerpt
Contents:
I. Introduction and Objective:
II. Construction and Demolition Wastes:
a. Statistics for Construction Wastes:
b. Statistics for Demolition Wastes:
III. Construction and Demolition Projects Impacts on the Community:
IV. Wastes in Egypt:
a. Levels of Wastes in Egypt:
b. Handling of C&D Wastes in Egypt:
V. Zero Waste Management for C&D Wastes:
VI. Green Economy and Entrepreneurship:
VII. Case Studies:
a. Victoria State Case Study:
b. Building Sector in Greece:
c. Kuwait Case Study:
d. Turkey Case Study:
e. Rebuilding C&D Waste Recycling Efforts in India
VIII. Reflections and Recommendations:
IX. Conclusion:
X. References:
List of Figures:
Figure 1: Percentage of generated construction waste in Egypt [7]
Figure 2: Open burning of wastes and open dumping of wastes in Assiut Governorate [12]
Figure 3: Generated solid wastes in Egypt in 2010 [12]
Figure 4: A flow chart for the two approaches of C&D waste management life cycle. [13]
Figure 5: Flow chart of the first approach of CWM and its cost components. [13]
Figure 6: Flow chart of the second approach of CWM and its cost components. [13]
Figure 7: Production circular path (in black) and lines path (in red) [16]
Figure 8: Cradle to Cradle waste management [4]
Figure 9: C&D waste process flow diagram-zero waste strategy [18]
Figure 10: Green economy sectors [4].
Figure 11: Resource recovery rate for construction and demolition [21]
Figure 12: C&D Waste Grouping according to the regulation [24]
Figure 13: Construction Waste Recycle Facility [24]
Figure 14: WEB Based Control Unit [24]
Figure 15: C&D Waste Collection Process [24]
Figure 16: C&D Waste Disposal Process [24]
Figure 17: Cost comparison between new and old building materials [25]
List of Tables:
Table 1: Building related C&D debris generation [5]….
Table 2: Comparison of concentration of construction waste in various countries [6]…...…
Table 3: Generated solid wastes in Egypt in 2010 [12].
Table 4: Stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in each approach. [13]…..
Table 5-Comparison between the two approaches by the decision matrix. [13]...
Table 6: Classification of C&D recycling machinery [18]…
Table 7: Summary of 2010–2011 results against projected targets [21]…...
Table 8: Alteration rate of sustainable building demand during the last years (ranking 1-7, with 1 = not at all, 4 moderate and 7 in a very high rate) [22]..…...
Table 9: Ways through which, the sustainable building cluster’s enterprises, will become more competitive in an international level. [22]….
Table 10: Estimated quantity in landfill sites and its recycling potential [23]…..
Table 11: Recycled aggregate demand [23]…..….
Table 12: Actual market value for aggregate in Kuwait (in US $ and Kuwaiti Dinars) [23]
Table 13: Suggested prices for recycled aggregates and their applications [22]...
Abstract:
Sustainable development is considered to be the main solution for various environmental problems facing the world nowadays. In this project, we are going to discuss the definition and importance of sustainability. Moreover, this Project States the condition of C&D wastes in Egypt, and their handling. It also explains the concepts of zero waste and green entrepreneurship, and connects these concepts through a variety of integrated case studies. Therefore, we can define a solution to the C&D waste problem in Egypt.
I. Introduction and Objective:
Environmental concerns as well as social issues such as poverty, disparity between societies, and tensions due to social inequalities are considered to be some of the main problems facing the world nowadays. Therefore, sustainability have been placed under the spotlight as the effective solution for such problems. The attention given to the social and environmental sustainability has been increased by national and international institutions, policy makers, practitioners, and academics. Moreover, corporations are pushed towards adopting the principles of social and environmental sustainability within their strategies, structures, and management systems by national and international regulations. Although sustainable development is very important, its nature and definition are not often discussed and analyzed explicitly. [1]
Sustainability is based on a simple idea which claims that everything that we need for survival depends on our natural environment either directly or indirectly. It also can create and maintain the conditions needed by humans and nature to exist through fulfilling the requirements of the present and future generations. This means that sustainability makes sure that water, materials, and other resources that protect human health and the environment will keep present. [2]
In order to get more understanding about the concept of sustainability, it is needed to be defined. Sustainable development is defined as the development that meets the needs of the present without preventing the future generations from meeting their needs. Actually, term (future generations) refer to a very long time. Moreover, the steady growth of populations leads to sizes of these quantities that become so large as to be impossible. These two concepts leads to the first law of sustainability which says that population growth cannot be sustained with the growth in the consumption rates. [3]
One of the ways to reach this target of sustainable development is to save the natural resources through waste management strategies. Actually, waste generation differs from one community to another. There are different types of wastes that can be generated. For example, wastes can be classified into hazardous and non-hazardous wastes according to their impact to the environment and people. Wastes are also classified into solid and liquid wastes. Examples for solid wastes are municipal waste and sludge, agricultural waste, hospital waste, construction and demolishing waste, industrial waste and sludge, floating weeds, and electronic waste. Unfortunately, the cost of the current methods of pollution control, treatment and environmental protection is found to be very high. Therefore, waste management development is burdened due to this high cost. However, the case will be different if sustainable development is applied because it encourages economic growth unless this economic growth has an adverse impact on the environmental resources management. [4]
The vision of the report that C&D wastes is one from the largest and most hazard wastes in Egypt and up to now Egypt does not appreciate the economic value in these wastes and does not realize their environmental impacts on the people health nor their social impacts on the free lands which are used to be dump sites for these wastes. The report show five case studies aim to reach 100% recycling or zero waste and build green entrepreneurship for C&D waste. This connection between zero waste and build green entrepreneurship will produce comprehensive solution for C&D waste in Egypt to solve the different aspects of this problem and get great economic benefit through this solution.
II. Construction and Demolition Wastes:
Construction and demolition wastes are considered to be one of the main produced wastes by construction and demolition industry. These wastes are classified into two categories: construction wastes that are generated directly from building activities. For instance, concrete, rubble, fiberglass, asphalt, bricks, plaster, wood, metals, caulking, cardboard, roofing wastes, tar-paper, adhesives, sealants, paints, and plastics are considered to be wastes produced from construction activities. On the contrary, demolition waste are those produced from demolition activities, and it includes almost the same materials as those included in construction waste. Disposing these wastes can lead to adverse impacts on the environment. For example, huge economic losses can occur due to these wastes. Furthermore, groundwater quality can be affected due to contamination by chemicals found in these wastes. [4]
Moreover, according to the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA, construction and demolition wastes are defined as the debris produced from construction, renovation, and demolition activities executed in buildings, roads, and bridges. These wastes include concrete, wood, asphalt, gypsum, metals, bricks, glass, plastics, plumbing fixtures, trees, stumps, and rocks. In 1996, it was estimated that about 136 million tons of C&D wastes were produced in the USA. When analyzing these wastes, it was found that the majority came from building demolition and renovation rather than from new construction. In addition, residential and commercial buildings produce almost equal percentage of C&D wastes. The composition of C&D wastes produced depends on the type of project from which they are generated. The following table shows some estimates for the percentage of debris in C&D materials. [5]
Table 1: Building related C&D debris generation [5]
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The percentage of C&D wastes produced in different countries are shown in the following table.
Table 2: comparison of concentration of construction waste in various countries [6]
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It was found that about 70 million tons of waste are generated from C&D activities in the United Kingdom, while about 14 million tons of wastes are landfilled in Australia per year. [6]
a. Statistics for Construction Wastes:
Construction wastes are relatively clean, heterogeneous building materials produced from different construction activities. The main sources of producing these materials are classified into six categories which are design, procurement, handling of materials, operation, residual, and other sources. Moreover, the quality and quantity of construction wastes depend on the project being implemented. The following chart shows the percentage of wastes produced from different types of buildings in Egypt. [4]
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Figure 1: Percentage of generated construction waste in Egypt [7]
During the construction stage, wastes are generated due to many causes such as unused materials, incorrect materials such as surplus stencils or nails and packages of construction materials, surplus concrete materials due to improper preservation, necessary disassembly due to production errors, and many other causes. [7]
b. Statistics for Demolition Wastes:
Demolition wastes are heterogeneous mixtures of building materials generated from complete or partial removal of structures by man-made processes or natural disasters such as aggregate, concrete, wood, metals, glass, paints, fasteners, adhesives, wall coverings, insulation, and dirt. The composition and quantities of wastes produced depend on the type of removed structure as well as the type of materials used in these structures. The quantity of demolition wastes from residential buildings is estimated to be 1.3 – 1.6 tons/m[2] of the ground floor area of the structure. However, the quantity of demolition wastes from industrial buildings is estimated to be 1.5 – 2 tons/m[2] of the total demolished area. [4]
Renovation and refurbishments of buildings due to deterioration, corruption, alternation of needs or fashion, causes old materials to become wastes. It is estimated that about 30-50% of overall construction wastes are generated during the stage of renovation. [7]
During demolition state, buildings have completed their lifetime. Therefore, the entire building, including its materials and components, have become wastes, causing the amount of wastes to increase. [7]
III. Construction and Demolition Projects Impacts on the Community:
Construction and demolition activities have many adverse impacts on the community. The main fields that are affected by C&D wastes are the environment, the economy, and the society. In general the environment is negatively affected by these wastes due to exploitation of land and other resources, as well as generation of waste and different types of pollution. One of the main disadvantages of C&D wastes is the exploitation of land. It is known that most of the C&D wastes are traditionally landfilled, usually in the same landfills where municipal solid wastes are disposed. Because the volume of these wastes is very huge, more lands were used in order to dispose these wastes [8].
Moreover, C&D activities negatively affect air quality due to dust and other air pollutants emission. In 2005, it was predicted that about 1000 accelerated deaths and extra 1000 respiratory hospital admissions occurred in London due to air pollution caused by airborne particles. These particles can result from different causes including construction and demolition work. There are many ways of producing dust and emissions from construction activities. These particles include wide range of sizes and types and vary between places and from time to time. Most of the dust particle cannot be inhaled, but they might cause eye, nose, and throat irritation, as well as leading to deposition on cars, windows and other property. However, other fine particles can enter the human lungs causing breathing and respiratory problems. In addition, particles can carry adhered carcinogenic compounds into the lungs. [9]
Other types of pollutions can be caused by construction and demolition activities such as noise pollution and vibrations resulting from machines. Moreover, excavation and drainage can contaminate the soil and the underground water wells. Spilt oil in construction and demolition sites also can cause environmental pollution and hazards. Concrete, cement, and grouts are also considered to be pollutants to the ground and watercourses because they are alkaline and corrosive. [10]
In addition to the environmental impact of C&D wastes, they have impacts on the economical sustainability of the countries because construction sector is considered to be an important base to other related sectors [7]. Moreover, construction industry consumes huge amount of natural resources and produces huge amount of wastes. The economic benefits to be gained from C&D wastes minimization and recycling are huge because it is beneficial for environment and construction industry in terms of resources and cost savings. [11]
IV. Wastes in Egypt:
a. Levels of Wastes in Egypt:
The increasing levels of waste production as well as the impacts of these wastes on the whole country is considered to be a great challenge to the Government. The variation in the waste streams and the increasing household, electronic, construction and demolition, and medicine wastes has become challenging to the levels of finance, technology, as well as institutional mandate. All these wastes have extraordinary negative impacts on health, air and water resources, and local environment and ecosystems. All the country is suffering nowadays from burning as well as open dumping of wastes in many places in the country. Therefore, it has become very critical to apply zero waste strategy to these different types of wastes in the country. [12]
Those images got removed by the editorial team due to copyright reasons.
Figure 2: Open burning of wastes and open dumping of wastes in Assiut Governorate [12]
There is no specific data of the amounts of wastes generated in Egypt. However, there are some approximations for the amounts of solid wastes produced in different governorates. According to data generated in 2010 by the Ministry of State for Local Development, the highest type of waste produced in Egypt is the construction and demolition wastes. The following table shows the estimates of the amounts of wastes produced in Egypt. These data is presented in the following pie chart [12]:
Table 3: Generated solid wastes in Egypt in 2010 [12]
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Figure 3: Generated solid wastes in Egypt in 2010 [12]
b. Handling of C&D Wastes in Egypt:
“The waste generated from construction and demolition sites is considered one of the most irritating problems in Egypt. In the last 10 years some effort has been made toward solving this problem, the most outstanding is the newly issued Egyptian rating system “Green Pyramids Rating System. It emphasizes on waste management and particularly “site provision and environment “.which contributes to 75% of the management category score. However the traditional practice which is limited to dumping all the generated waste is still dominating. The absence of sustainable practices in construction sector in Egypt led to the lack in financial and environmental data. [13]”. In addition to that the C&D wastes are not listed in the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report for any project under construction in Egypt.
This Mess in handling C&D wastes and the lack of the information make the governmental reports about C&D quantity in Egypt to be contradicted where the estimated quantities by the Ministry of Local Development MOLD are 10 times the quantities estimated by the Egyptian Environmental Affair Agency EEAA [12] and this contradiction is also reported in research made by the HBRC (Housing and building research center) in Egypt [13].
HBRC introduced research in 2014 about handling C&D in Egypt. The scope of the research with the concept of “Reduce–Reuse–Recycle “ the research focused on two approaches, first on for Reducing C&D wastes and the second for Reusing C&D wastes, the scope include the cost analysis and evaluation for these two approaches.
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Figure 4: A flow chart for the two approaches of C&D waste management life cycle. [13]
The two approaches are illustrated briefly in figure 4. It is a step toward providing both the policy maker in a strategic level and the decision maker in an institutional level with useful information for planning, changing and implementing CDWM. [13].
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Figure 5: Flow chart of the first approach of CWM and its cost components. [13]
“Figure (5) represents the first approach and shows that in this approach the waste is collected and temporally stored in construction or demolition site and then the mixed waste is transferred to the dumpsite. The process of waste segregation occurs in dumpsite to end up in three different final destinations; landfill for non-recyclable waste, recycling station for recyclable waste and market for both recycled and reused waste. The main advantage of this alternative is that it does not need a contractor with past experience in waste management and it is convenient for projects that have limited storage and maneuvering area. From the government perspective this alternative reduces its burden regarding C&D site monitoring, where all is needed is to monitor and control the periodic collection and dumping the waste to the nearest legal dumpsite. On the other hand most of the job is transferred to the dumpsite where the mixed and contaminated waste is simply dumped there. The dumpsite team has to; first segregate the waste into recyclable and non-recyclable then sort the recyclable waste into different types such as tiles, breaks, concrete, ale, and then transfer it to the recycling station. The non-recyclable waste on the other hand goes to the landfill. Since the transferred waste to the dump site is mixed and contaminated, more treatments and test process either in the dumpsite or in recycling station as well as continuous labor’s training in dumpsite are required. Moreover, mixed waste usually has more size and needs more precautions during transportation trips therefore cost more money for transportation. This approach ends up with more total number of transportation trips where first, the waste is transferred to the dump site then it is transferred from dump site to the recycling station.”[13].
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Figure 6: Flow chart of the second approach of CWM and its cost components. [13]
“It is displayed in Fig. 6 which shows that the generated waste is collected, stored and segregated in construction or demolition site. In this case the reused material such as steel waste is used in construction again or is sold to the market as junk while the non-recyclable waste is transferred to the nearest dump site for landfill and the recyclable waste is transferred to the recycling station. The main advantage of this choice is segregating the waste as soon as it is generated which creates considerably clean waste. This directly leads to less expense in the phase of treatment and tests. Therefore this approach promotes the project to be qualified for the GPRS. However in this approach a contractor with a past experience in waste management is preferable and the workers should be trained in the right techniques of collecting, handling and separating waste. In this approach; CDWM can be implemented by either the main contractor using his resources of labor and equipment or by subcontracting a service provider to achieve this task. This approach requires monitoring and controlling construction and demolition sites by government to guarantee the correct practice of CDWM and gaining its environmental advantages. On the other hand this approach reduces the expenses of dumping fees where just the non-recyclable waste is dumped. It also reduces the expenses needed for machines and labors in dumpsite, as well as reduces the transportation trips where the recyclable waste is transferred directly from C&D sites to market and recycling station.”[13]
All the recent studies and reports for the CDWM problem in Egypt recommended the necessity of private sector participating in CDWM implementation. Therefore the research identified the main stakeholders to be involved in CDWM processes in Egypt during its life cycle as the following: construction or demolition contractor, government represented in localities and as the dumpsites owner, private sector represented in transportation companies, dumpsite administrators and recycling station owner. The same group of stakeholders is involved in both approaches; however the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder have different weights in each approach Table 4 shows the detailed roles of each stakeholder in the different stages of CDWM lifecycle for each approach. [13]
Table 4: Stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities in each approach. [13]
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Table 5-Comparison between the two approaches by the decision matrix. [13]
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“Also the weight is assigned to each attribute from a strategic perspective, a higher weight is assigned to attributes that directly affect the practice of C&D waste management in Egypt and comply with the GPRS. An important attribute such as “the contractor`s expenses in C&D site” has a high weight because it is the first step where the waste is generated and high expenses could be discouraging to implement C&D waste management as well as “health and environment protection” as it is considered the main target of implementing CDWM. The weight is assigned to all attributes according to the relative importance of each of them to the strategic decision making and a scale from 1 to 5 is used where 5 = very important and 1 = not important. “. [13]
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