Construction and demolition waste management: China's lessons

Our plain-English summary of Construction and demolition waste management: China's lessons, by H. Duan, J. Li (Waste Management & Research, 2016).

The study

• Authors: H. Duan, J. Li
• Journal: Waste Management & Research
• Published: 2016;34(5):397-8
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 21 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

In this editorial, the authors discussed the management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste in China. Their starting point was the collapse of an unstable deposit of C&D and other wastes in Shenzhen on 20 December 2015, which buried nearly three dozen buildings and left at least 75 people missing.

They cited a government report stating that China generated roughly 1 billion tonnes of C&D waste in 2013, about five times the municipal solid waste generated that year, and that only about 5% was reused or recycled. In Shenzhen, 35 million tonnes were generated in 2014. Of this, 16% went to recycling plants and 84% to landfill, but the six licensed landfills could accept approximately 10 million tonnes. The authors said this implied that over half was disposed of in unlicensed sites or by dumping, and they described existing regulations as not rigid and unenforceable.

They identified three hazards in C&D waste: heavy metals, especially zinc; brominated flame retardants (PBDEs and HBCD); and asbestos. They stated that many old buildings in China reaching the end of their life contain asbestos, that asbestos was still used in rural or less-developed regions, and that China lacked a sound management system for C&D waste containing asbestos.

They called for study of C&D waste flows, a classification system to separate non-inert materials including asbestos, assessment of the impacts of dumping, safer handling, and more research on recycling.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This was a two-page editorial, not a research study. It reported no new data and did not measure asbestos exposure or disease. The authors wrote about construction and demolition (C&D) waste in China. Citing a China Daily report, they opened with the 20 December 2015 landslide of piled waste in Shenzhen, which buried nearly three dozen buildings and left at least 75 people missing. Citing a government report, they wrote that China produced roughly 1 billion tonnes of C&D waste in 2013 and that about 5% was reused or recycled. On asbestos, the authors stated that many old buildings in China nearing the end of their life contain asbestos. They wrote that, unlike many developed countries, China still used asbestos in rural or less-developed regions and lacked a sound system for managing C&D waste containing asbestos. They also described heavy metals and brominated flame retardants as probable contaminants of this waste, noting that little research had characterised the flame retardants in C&D waste. The authors concluded that a system is needed to separate hazardous materials, including asbestos, from C&D waste.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Editorial (opinion piece; no original data)
• Who was studied: Construction and demolition waste and old buildings in China, with Shenzhen as the main example; no people were studied
• Exposure: Asbestos in construction and demolition waste (no fiber type named). The authors also discussed probable contaminants: heavy metals (particularly zinc) and brominated flame retardants (PBDEs and HBCD).
• Main results:
  • Citing a China Daily report, the editorial stated that the Shenzhen landslide of piled waste buried nearly three dozen buildings and left at least 75 people missing
  • Citing a National Development and Reform Commission report, the editorial stated that China generated roughly 1 billion tonnes of C&D waste in 2013
  • Of that 2013 C&D waste, only about 5% was reused or recycled, according to the same report
  • In Shenzhen in 2014, 84% of C&D waste went to landfill. The authors inferred that over half of that year's C&D waste went to unlicensed landfill sites or was dumped.
  • The authors stated that many developed countries have rigid, enforceable regulations to separate and safely dispose of scrap asbestos in C&D waste, that China was an exception, and that asbestos was still used in rural or less-developed regions
  • The authors stated that China lacked a sound management system for C&D waste containing asbestos
  • The authors wrote that C&D waste mixtures likely would introduce contamination by heavy metals, particularly zinc
  • The authors wrote that building materials probably contain the flame retardants PBDEs and HBCD, and that relatively little work has characterised such pollutants in C&D waste
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that a classification system or procedure is needed to divert or separate non-inert materials, particularly those containing heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and asbestos. They also called for more research on recycling and environmental impacts.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Construction.

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