Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Characterizing the generation and flows of construction and demolition

waste in China
Lina Zheng a, Huanyu Wu a,1, Hui Zhang a, Huabo Duan a,⇑, Jiayuan Wang a, Weiping Jiang a,⇑, Biqin Dong a,
Gang Liu b, Jian Zuo c, Qingbin Song d
a
Smart Cities Research Institute, School of Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University, 518060 Shenzhen, China
b
SDU Life Cycle Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense, Denmark
c
School of Architecture & Built Environment, Entrepreneurship, Commercialisation and Innovation Centre (ECIC), The University of Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia
d
Macau Environmental Research Institute, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau

h i g h l i g h t s

An novel method to quantify C&D waste in China was developed.

2.36 billion tonnes of C&D waste were generated in China annually 2003–2013.

Potential recycling value of C&D waste is up to 401 billion USD in 2013.
3

With the current dumping rate, C&D waste could occupy an area of 7.5 billion m .

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Associated with the continuing increase of construction activities such as infrastructure projects, com-
Received 25 July 2016 mercial buildings, and housing programs, China has been experiencing a rapid increase of construction
Received in revised form 14 January 2017 and demolition (C&D) waste. Till now, the generation and flows of China’s C&D waste has not been well
Accepted 16 January 2017
understood. This paper aims to provide an explicit analysis of this based on a weight-per-construction-
Available online 25 January 2017
area method. Our results show that approximately 2.36 billion tonnes of C&D waste were generated in
China annually during the period of 2003–2013, of which demolition waste and construction waste con-
Keywords:
tributed to 97% and 3%, respectively, in 2013. East China contributed over half of the total C&D waste in
C&D waste
Waste characterization
China due to their rapid economic development and expansion of cities, followed by Middle China (21%)
Economic values and South China (11%). Potential economic values from the recycling of C&D waste were found to vary
Land space from 201 billion (the worst scenario, i.e., the current practice of C&D waste management) to 401 billion
China US dollars in 2013 (the most optimistic scenario, i.e., C&D waste is assumed to be well recycled); and the
landfill space demands were estimated to range from 7504 million m3 (the worst scenario) to 706 mil-
lion m3 (the most optimistic scenario) accordingly. Consequently, increasing the recycling rate and reduc-
ing landfill rate of C&D waste could not only improve the potential recycling economic values, but also
dramatically reduce land use and potential environmental impacts.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction urbanization means massive construction and demolition activities

With the rapid urbanization of China, its building industry has
contributed to 26.7% of the national GDP. In addition, the building
area under construction and completed building area has reached
12.4 billion m2 and 4 billion m2 respectively in 2015 [33]. Rapid
⇑ Corresponding authors.
E-mail address: huabo@szu.edu.cn (H. Duan).
1
These authors contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first
authors.
across the country, which resulted in massive construction and
demolition (C&D) waste. C&D waste is therefore becoming one of
the largest solid waste streams in China [51].
C&D waste is usually considered as inert solid waste, which has
large quantities and complex compositions. C&D waste mainly
consists of metal, concrete, mortar, brick and block, timber, and
plastic [1,11]. Theoretically, C&D waste have high potentials of
recycling and high economic value, 80% of which could be reused
[16]. However, massive C&D waste has been disposed via simple
landfilling or dumping in China, which would become a potential

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.01.055
0950-0618/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
406 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413
risk that threatens regional ecological security and sustainable
development [37,51]. First, they occupy large areas of land, which
is already scare during a rapid urbanization process. Second, while
the vast majority of construction materials are inert, buildings may
have used some materials which would absorb harmful elements
[12]. These harmful C&D waste could cause soil and water pollu-
tions due to the leaching of toxic heavy metals (e.g., As, Pb, Hg,
Cr, Cd, Cu, and Zn) [42] and brominates flame retardant (e.g.
hexabromocyclododecane -HBCD and Poly Brominated Diphenyl
Ethers -PBDEs) which was classified as Persistent Organic Pollu-
tants [11]. Third, the massive volume of dumped C&D waste may
result in safety hazards such as landslide [48].
At present, the majority of C&D waste in China is disposed via
landfilling or directly sent to dumping sites without any environ-
mental protection measures. The recycling rate in China is rela-
tively low compared to many developed economics. The EU-28
has a recycling rate between less than 10% and over 90% (from
Eurostat, 94% for the Netherland by, 87% for the UK, 76% for Italy,
and 34% for Germany) [15]. This is comparable to the U.S (70%)
[31] and Japan (95%) (Yonetani, 2014). For many cities in China,
material recovery and recycling are not normally carried out by
the local authorities or landfill operators due to low recovery value
[11]. Waste dumping sites included gravel pits, farm land, aban-
doned residential land, borrow pits, river side, and low lying areas.
Due to the limited landfill disposal capacity and high cost of land
resource in big cities, it is not unusual C&D waste is transferred
to less-developed neighboring regions. In fact, there is no national
or local regulation to guide the disposal of C&D waste via landfill-
ing. Even worse, there is no specific regulations on sorting and safe
treatment measures for non-inert or hazardous C&D waste debris,
such as the asbestos, brominated flame retardant thermal insula-
tion material, and lead paint debris used in old buildings [13]. On
the contrary, based on the explicit C&D waste inventory data, effec-
tive management and industrialization model have been estab-
lished in developed countries. In the United States, for example,
the hazardous waste from C&D waste is well managed under the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) [24]. In addition,
C&D waste management has been taken into full consideration
for several decades in Germany, and many initiatives have been
in place, at both the state and the local level. Germany has released
more than 180 laws and regulations related to a waste disposal
since 1970s [39], and till 2012, its recycling rate of C&D waste
has reached 68% [9]. Nevertheless, a pre-requisite for tackling the
C&D waste issue is to fully understand its generation, composition,
flows, and the recycling potentials
So far, there are indeed some studies which have already devel-
oped estimation approaches to investigate the generation, flows
and composition of C&D waste. To summarize, four approaches
have been used in the scientific literature to quantify the C&D
waste generation:

Records-based accounting: Kartam et al. [22] estimated the
generation of C&D waste in a region of Kuwait based on the
records of loading capacity of trucks to the construction site,
and conducted a further investigation on waste collection activ-
ities and the waste handling systems. However, this method
was rarely employed to quantify the C&D waste generation,
because few countries have detailed records to describe the
on-site situation.

Material flow analysis (MFA) approach: MFA could examine the
input and output of construction materials that come into ser-
vice in given years and also figure out materials flows through
the whole construction activity. Cochran and Townsend [5]
adopted a MFA approach for estimating C&D waste generation
and composition in the U.S. This study differs from others by
accommodating waste generated from road, bridges engineer-
ing, and other non-building structures. Bergsdal et al. [2] devel-
oped the stocks and flows model to evaluate the generation of
C&D waste in Norway. To make the results more robust, Monte
Carlo simulation has been employed in the computational pro-
cedure in order to capture the uncertainties related to the input
parameters.

A method with an aid of Geographic Information System (GIS):
Gallardo et al. [19] suggested it is possible to obtain a spatial
distribution of solid waste within a specific geographic area tak-
ing into account its generation, composition and variation
throughout the year by GIS. De Feo and De Gisi [8] combined
a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach with GIS
to obtain an initial screening so that unsuitable areas can be
eliminated.

A weight-per-construction-area estimation method: Lage et al.
[23] presented a calculation procedure to ascertain the produc-
tion of C&D waste and determine its composition for Spain.
Practically, that study paid attention to Galicia in Spain alone,
and was lack of estimation of C&D waste at national level.
Sáez et al. [38] developed weight-per-construction-area by tak-
ing some parameters into account. That research quantified the
waste generated in the construction activities of Mediterranean
by considering the total floor area of the project and the number
of dwellings. However, residential building is the only type of
buildings examined in that research, which was lack of inte-
grated and comprehensive analysis.

These methods have also been deployed in a few case studies
for C&D waste in China:

Material flow analysis (MFA) approach: Based on the combina-
tion of MFA and weight-per-construction-area method, Ding
and Xiao [10] estimated that approximately 13.7 million tonnes
of C&D wastes were produced in Shanghai in 2012, among
which concrete, bricks and blocks accounted for more than
80%. Hu et al. [20] developed a dynamic MFA model for ascer-
taining resource demand and waste generation through divid-
ing the Chinese dwelling stock into urban and rural
subsystems. In addition, Hu et al. [21] forecasted the relation-
ship for housing and steel demand in China in the future, which
has been conducted by using the dynamic MFA. However, this
study includes only selected one construction material (steel)
and only residential buildings. Ye and G. [50] designed a system
dynamics model to incorporate the inter-related factors into the
waste management process. The software ‘‘i Think” could be
used to depict the interrelations of impacts on C&D waste man-
agement, such as waste deduction rate, compulsory policy,
landfill charge, technical level and so on. However, that research
mainly focuses on proposing the model without the verifica-
tion of the quantitative results.

A method with aid of Geographic Information System (GIS): Wu
et al. [45] developed an innovative approach based on GIS to
estimate demolition waste generation and trends economic val-
ues in Shenzhen. Specifically, this method needs to define the
questions, to state the aims and contents, and then import the
DW-GIS database into GIS software, i.e. generation index of
demolition waste, demolition time of buildings, building types,
and recycling potential. Consequently, calculation and analysis
can be conducted. Li et al. [25] presented a study on reducing
C&D waste by integrating Global Position System (GPS) and
GIS. Although this method is innovative, it is difficult obtain
massive geographic informations.

Weight-per-construction-area method: Shi and Xu [40] esti-
mated the amount of concrete waste based on annual cement
production, and examined the building area by gray forecast.
Wu et al. [46] developed an innovative method to estimate
the quantity of demolition waste (DW) produced from different
structures of buildings. Lu et al. [29] summarized the waste pro-
 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413
duction rates reported in existing studies to calculate the C&D
waste generation by weight-per-construction-area method.
They proposed an index system which could reduce the
uncertainty.
In addition, two reports roughly estimated the total C&D waste
generation in China. The Annual Report of the Comprehensive
Utilization of Resources in China (2014) claimed that around one
billion tonnes of C&D waste were generated in China in 2013
[35], which is equal to the total C&D waste generation in the entire
European Union (EU, 25 counties) [7] and six times higher than
that of the US [36]. CSATICRI [6] reported that the total amount
of C&D waste is approximately 1.5 billion to 2.4 billion annually
in China, and the recycling rate is less than 5%. When comparing
with the developed countries, in which the recycling rate are
95%, C&D waste management in China is at a low level. However,
these two reports are extremely unreliable since there is neither
official public statistics nor clearly explained methodology to sup-
port these C&D waste generation estimates.
While all above-mentioned studies are informative, there is lack
of in-depth study for the systematic analysis of the generation and
flows of C&D waste particularly the recycling potentials. First,
existing estimates mainly focused on a specific region or city, but
did not cover the entire China (except those two unreliable reports
mentioned above). Second, method-wise, records-based account-
ing and MFA are not so applicable to quantify C&D waste in China
due to the lack of official statistics at both city and national level.
GIS-based estimate, which is proved to be promising for a city with
complete building information [45] is not applicable for China
either due to the lack of extensive building data at the country
level. Third, while a few more mature cities (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai,
and Shenzhen) have taken actions to manage C&D waste, the exist-
ing regulations are not rigid and enforceable in supporting the
quantification of C&D waste.
Based on weight-per-construction-area method, this study aims
to estimate the C&D waste generation and flows in China. In fact,
the method of estimation of demolition waste in this study is very
different compared to other studies. One aim of this study is to
quantify the C&D waste generation at the national level. Moreover,
land (space) demand of landfilling disposal of C&D waste has been
taken into consideration to evaluate current C&D management sys-
tems which has been overlooked by existing studies. Another
important goal is to characterize the flows and recycling potential
of C&D waste by means of economic value in this study. The critical
factors include: (i) While annually newly-built areas are explicit
from national statistics, the calculation of demolition area which
could support the weight-per-construction-area method is impli-
cit; (ii) How to determine the waste production rates obtained to
accurately quantify the generation of C&D waste; (iii) Since C&D
waste management systems vary widely across China, quantifica-
tion of recycling value and land use demand needs to incorporate
the governmental, non-profit, and private business collection
options available to consumers and business, which is overlooked
by previous studies. There are significant challenges for setting
these parameters or making related assumptions.
2. Method
2.1. Scope of this study
Waste categories: C&D waste considered includes metal, timber,
concrete, mortar, brick, and others (e.g., glass, plastic, insulation
materials and mixed fragments). Excavated soil from the construc-
tion activities is excluded. Renovation waste is not included either.
407
Evaluation indicators: the annual generation of C&D waste in
China, the recycling potential value (R-PV), and landfill volume (L).
Time frame: The period of 2003–2013 was chosen due to the
data availability.
Region division: In order to understand the waste distribution of
different regions, the mainland China is divided into seven zones,
i.e. North China (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Inner Mongolia Autono-
mous Region and Shanxi), Northeast China (Liaoning, Jilin, Hei-
longjiang), East China (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian,
Shandong), Middle China (Henan, Hubei, Hunan), South China
(Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan), Southwest China (Chongqing,
Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet), and Northwest China
(Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang).
2.2. Composition and material flows of C&D waste in China
The life cycle stages of C&D waste (shown in Fig. 1) include
waste generation from building construction sites (B-CS) and
building demolition sites (B-DS), collection (CO), sorting (SO),
and various ways of recycling by collection companies (C-C), on-
site recycling facilities (O-RF), and recycling facilities in a fixed
plant (R-FP), and ultimate treatment including exchange dumping
sites (E-DS), landfill (L), and illegal dumping sites (I-DS). E-DS
refers to the sites where C&D wastes are temporarily stored and
then backfilled to another new construction sites; on the contrary,
I-DS means C&D wastes dumped in an illegal dumping site.
O-RF has been introduced to recycle waste in the demolition
activities. In this situation, C&D waste is initially crushed by a
mobile crusher. The aggregate is then classified by particle sizes,
with large sizes between 30 and 50 mm, middle sizes between
10 and 30 mm, and small sizes between 5 and 10 mm. These aggre-
gates could be used as roadbed, recycled concrete, mortar, and
bricks which could decrease the transportation cost of waste. Con-
sequently, the risk of illegal dumping will be reduced and the recy-
cling rate will be increased [47].
2.3. Data sources
Statistical Data: Various data sources were used for the estima-
tion of demolition area (D). Built-up Area (B), Urban Road Surface
Area (U) and Urban Green Coverage Area (UG) were obtained from
China City Statistical Yearbook (NBSC 2014a). Newly added building
area (N) was obtained from China Statistical Yearbook on Construc-
tion ([34]). Building Floor Area Ratios (F) were obtained from Urban
Planning and Management technical requirements [32]. These data
sources and definitions are shown in Table 1, and also detailed in
Table S1–S5 in the supplementary information.
Waste production rates data (Table 2): The waste production
rates of construction waste (PCW ) was obtained from Technical
code for construction waste reduction (SJG 21-2011) [44]; the waste
production rates of demolition waste (PDW ) was obtained from a
series of surveys that we have designed and commissioned in
2015 (details could be found in our previous study which was
focusing on the situation in Shenzhen [46].
Recycling and landfill related data: Similar to PDW , these data
were obtained from a survey we designed and commissioned in
2015 [46]. Unit recycling potential value indicators (UR), unit land-
fill volume indicators (UL), recycling rate (R), and landfill rate (LR)
for each waste material are shown in Table 3. The scrap metals are
usually collected by special collecting companies and handled
together with scrap metals from household waste and industrial
waste. The UR of metals is therefore quite high. For example, the
price of copper is around 5000 US dollar per ton. In comparison,
the UR of concrete, mortar, brick/block and ceramic are still very
low, valued at less than 40 US dollar per ton when they were recy-
cled as aggregate for concrete products [46]. Other C&D wastes
408 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413

Fig. 1. Life cycle flow chart of C&D waste in China.

Table 1
Data sources and definition.

Calculate index Definition Data sources

Built-up Area (B)
Urban Road Surface Area (U)
Urban Green Coverage Area
(UG)
Newly Added Building Area
(N)
Building Floor Area Ratio (F)
It encompasses developed area, gross building area
(construction area) and illuminated section of road
The surface area of road in B
It refers to the shades of green in B
The completed construction area by the end of the year
It refers to the ratio of the gross floor area to various buildings
(including industrial building, residence, office building,
commercial
building, entertainment and gymnasium building, educational
building,
medical building and scientific research building)
National Bureau of Statistical of the People’s
Republic of China – China city Statistical Yearbook (Table S.1)
National Bureau of Statistical of the People’s
Republic of China – China city Statistical Yearbook (Table S.2)
National Bureau of Statistical of the People’s
Republic of China – China city Statistical Yearbook (Table S.3)
National Bureau of Statistical of the People’s
Republic of China – China Statistical Yearbook of Construction
(Table S.4)
Urban Planning and Management technical requirements (Table S.5)

such as insulation materials and fixed fragments are hardly recy-

cled and are usually disposed by landfill, therefore their recycling
values were not considered in this analysis. Table 2
To examine the recycling potential value (R-PV) and landfill vol- Waste production rates of C&D waste (kg/m2).
ume (L) in China, we have made some brief continuous scenarios Waste P-CW P-DW
analysis for the waste treatment and disposal (see Table 3). The
Metal 3.53 97.93
recycling rate was set from low to high while the landfill rate Concrete 18.03 674.69
was set from high to low accordingly. For the optimistic scenarios Mortar 1.45 109.96
setting, the recycling rate of metal scrap was set constantly at 99% Brick/block 1.75 308.90
since they have very high economic value and are also strictly reg- Ceramic – 146.72
Timber 6.35 26.01
ulated by the waste policy. Theoretically, inert C&D waste includ-
Others* 3.11 54.37
ing the concrete, mortar, brick/block, ceramic waste and so on,
Total 34.21 1360.22
could be recycled at a rate of 95% which is true in developed eco-
nomics such as Denmark in EU [15], except insulation materials Notes: Others include glass, plastic, insulation materials and mixed fragments.
 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413 409

Table 3
Unit recycling scenarios as potential value, unit landfill volume indicators, recycling rate and landfill rate of C&D wastes in China.

C&D waste UR (US dollar/ t) Remarks UL (t/m3) R LR

Low High High Low
*
Metal 1000 – 75% 99% 25% 1%
**
Concrete 40 0.42 5% 95% 95% 5%
**
Mortar 40 0.45 5% 95% 95% 5%
**
Brick/block 40 0.40 5% 95% 95% 5%
**
Ceramic 40 0.45 5% 95% 95% 5%
***
Timber 300 – 5% 95% 95% 5%
****
Others 0 0.45 0% 0% 100% 100%

Remarks:
*
Since the values of metals are heterogeneous – steel valued around 300 US dollar per ton, aluminum valued around 2000 US dollar per ton and copper valued more than
5000 US dollar per ton. Here we set an overall average value of 1000 US dollar for every ton of metal scrap.
**
Recycled as the aggregate for concrete products (i.e. concrete, mortar and brick/block).
***
Recycled as the materials to make new products.
****
Others means a mixture of tinny scraps or residues which are difficult to classify, and considered to be unrecyclable. Thus, their UR are set as 0 US dollar for calculation.

and mixed fragments. Accordingly, the remaining portions of C&D
wastes were assumed not recycled and they ended in landfills.
Based on the surveys of scrap metal recycling rate from C&D waste
in Shenzhen [26], the worst scenario for scrap metal was set at 75%
in this study. It is worth noting some metals embedded in the con-
crete which could hardly be separated and recycled. Indeed, scrap
metal recycling rate is extremely high in China due to the manual-
dominant dismantling approach as shown in our survey. Current
setting of 75% is an average value according to the survey results
(50% to 100%). Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the scrap
metal still have great potentials for further recycling compared to
current recycling rate of 75%. Accordingly, the remaining portions
of C&D wastes were assumed not recycled and they ended in land-
fills. The worst scenario for inert C&D waste is set by 5% which is
relatively close to the current situation of C&D waste dumping in
China [11].
2.4. Calculation procedure and model
2.4.1. C&D waste generation
C&D waste generation (G) in a given year could be calculated by
using the statistical and survey information. The generation of con-
struction waste (CW) and demolition waste (DW) are calculated
separately.

The generation of CW was calculated by multiplying the con-
struction waste production rates (P-CW) and construction area
in the end of year y.

Similarly, the generation of DW was calculated by multiplying
the demolition waste production rates (P-DW) and demolition
area in the end of year y.

Generation of C&D waste equals to the sum of the generation of
CW and DW.

Construction area (C) could be acquired directly from China Sta-
tistical Yearbook on Construction (See Table S.6).

Demolition area equals to the total building area (TA) for the
end of year y-1 plus the newly added building area (N) of year
y, then minus the TA for the beginning of year y.

TA was calculated by multiplying building cover area (BC) and
building floor area ratio F ðrÞ.

BC equals to the built-up area (B) minus the urban road surface
area (U) and the urban green coverage area (UG)
Therefore, the demolition area for year y could be calculated as
Eq. (2).
Dy ¼ TAy1 þ Ny  TAy
¼ BC y1  FðrÞ þ N y  BC y  FðrÞ
¼ ðBy1  U y1  UGy1 Þ  FðrÞ þ Ny  ðBy  U y  UGy Þ  FðrÞ
ð2Þ
where TAy means the building area in the y year, Ny means the
newly added building area of year y, BCy means the building cover
area in the y year, F(r) means the building floor area which derived
from the mean value of varies cities. By refers to the built-up area in
the y year, Uy refers to the urban road surface area in the y year, and
UGy refers to the urban green coverage area in the y year.
2.4.2. C&D waste recycling and landfill
We take the proportion of C&D waste, and the share of UR and UL
and recycling and landfill rate for each type of C&D waste materials
from Table 3. We then calculate the potential value R-PV and landfill
volume of generated C&D waste in a given year as shown in Eqs.
(3) and (4)
X
Rpvy ¼ Gy  Rx  URx ð3Þ
X
Ly ¼ Gy  LRx =ULx ð4Þ

More details could be found in Eq. (1).
X potential value of the x material; Ly refers to the land resource
Gy ¼ GyCW þ GyDW ¼ Cy  PCW þ Dy  PDW
Where Gy means the C&D waste generation in the y year; Gy-CW
means the construction waste volume in the y year; Gy-DW means
to the demolition waste volume in the y year; Cy and Dy refer to
the construction area and demolition area respectively in the y
year, and P-CW, P-DW refer to the construction waste production
rates and demolition waste production rates respectively.
However, construction area and demolition area are unknown. The
construction area and demolition area of China from 2003 to 2013
should be investigated.
where R-pv-y means the potential value in the y year, Rx means the
recycling rate in of the x material, URx means the unit recycling
ð1Þ
demands in the y year, LRx refers to the landfill rate of the x mate-
rial, ULx refers to the unit landfill volume of the x material, namely
density of x material.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. C&D waste generation in China
Fig. 2 shows the estimated C&D waste generation across China
from 2003 to 2013. The average annual generation is about 2.36
410 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413
6000
C&D waste generation amount
5000 Minimum value
Maximum value
Million tons
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Year
Fig. 2. C&D waste generation across China from 2003 to 2013 (The error bars mean
one-time standard deviation, 67% confidence level.).
billion tonnes in that decade, in which 3% was construction waste
(78 million tonnes), and 97% was demolition waste (2.28 billion
tonnes). All of that is possible due to the P-DW amount is much
higher than of P-CW owing to large quantity of scrap brick, concrete,
metal and so on. Actually, while reinforced concrete buildings were
only built in recent decades in China, most buildings were demol-
ished due to the quality and safety issues [28,41]. In China, the
designed service lifespan of buildings is 50 years for commercial
use and 70 years for residential use. However, most of these build-
ings were demolished within 10 to 30 years [41]. Therefore, short-
ened life cycle of buildings do have negative effect on C&D waste
management.
By 2030, there will be more than 220 cities in China with one
million–plus inhabitants, compared to 35 cities of this size in
Europe today (McKinsey Global Institute, 2012). – More than 20
Chinese cities will have more than five million population. Such
growth rate is consistent with that of the past three decades. As
the city rapidly expands, there are enormous challenges to the
sustainable use of land resources. The evolution of urbanization
indicates that urban renewable (renovation and rebuilding) has
substituted traditional geographical expansion. These include:
rural to urban, sea land reclamation in coastal cities [14], removing
the tops of mountains to fill in valleys to create land in mountain
area [27]. These have become the dominant approach to afford suf-
ficient land area. According to Shenzhen’s 13th Five-year urban
development plan (from 2016 to 2020), it is expected that around
30 km2 land area will be renovated till 2020. Approximately 12
million m2 of buildings in urban villages will be demolished, and
46 million m2 of residences will be rebuilt in these areas. Beijing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou also aim for renovating 62, 52 and 15
million m2 of buildings, respectively. This implies that cities will
continue to face the significant challenges of demolition waste.
However, this share was different in NDRC [35] report, which
was mentioned in Chapter 1. The difference determined by various
methods, specifically, the estimation of demolition area in this
study was calculated by B, U, F(r) etc. parameter, while the demo-
lition area was roughly assumed as 10% of construction area in
NDRC report. Detailed calculations could be found in Table S.8.
The results demonstrate that demolition waste is consistently
higher than construction waste by more than 30 times, mainly
because waste production rates of demolition waste (mean value:
1,360.2 kg/m2) is much higher than that of construction waste
(mean value: 34.2 kg/m2), while the demolition area (mean value:
1,619.7 m2) is slightly lower than construction area (mean value:
2,082.1 m2). The results suggest that demolition waste is the
dominant contributor of C&D waste generation in China.
Monte Carlo Simulation was implemented to incorporate the
uncertainty of inputs (those parameters which we have deter-
11% 1% 3% 4% 4%
North China
Northeast China
21%
East China
Middle China
South China
56%
Fig. 3. Distribution of C&D waste across China in 2013.
mined or assumed the distribution appropriately) by using Crystal
ball software, from which the standard error, minimum value and
maximum value have been obtained. Details results could be seen
in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3 shows the spatial distribution of C&D waste across China
in 2013. East China contributed to 56% of total C&D waste in China
in 2013, followed by Middle China (21%) and South China (11%).
This could be explained by the facts that these three regions are
the fastest growing regions of China with a rapid economic devel-
opment and expansion of cities. For instance, the construction
industry of these three regions accounted for 64.3% of total GDP
of China’s construction sector in 2013 (NBSC 2014d). Detailed
numbers could be found in Table S.9.
3.2. Comparison with other countries
According to the reports related to C&D waste treatment in
European countries, C&D waste is well managed although it
accounts for approximately 25%-30% of solid waste [15]. According
to the EU Waste Framework Directive, by 2020, the non-hazardous
C&D waste for re-use, recycling and other material recovery shall
be increased to a minimum of 70% by weight. Fig. 4 shows the vol-
ume of C&D waste generation and its management. The generation
volume of C&D waste in China was not shown in Fig. 4a in order to
make the results of other countries more remarkable. Statistically,
C&D waste amount of France is higher than that of other developed
countries reported in this paper, with more than 260.2 million ton-
nes in 2010. In EU, the total amount of C&D waste in almost all
Member States is far less than that in China (shown in Fig. 2),
which is more than 3500 million tonnes with poor management
of C&D waste. It is mainly because of mature system and long-
term practical experiment on the C&D waste management. For
example, the recovery rate in France is even higher due to the com-
bination of manual and mechanical sorting for waste collection as
well as the classification mechanism. As shown in Fig. 4b, the recy-
cling rate in those EU countries is obviously high than that in
China. The recycling rate in France was only 47%, which is less than
that in UK (86%) and Italy (75%). This is arguably due to the low
density in France, which is a geographically vast but comparatively
small population. In France, the land area per capita is 10072 m2/
per person. By contrast, land area per capita in UK, Italy and China
is only 3748 m2/per person, 4956 m2/per person and 7043 m2/per
person respectively.
Fig. 5 shows the composition of C&D waste in China. Concrete
waste contributes to the largest percentage at 48%, followed by
brick and block (21%) and ceramic (10%). Besides, the mortar waste
is also a considerable part of C&D waste and accounts for 8%. Sta-
tistically, these four types of waste altogether contribute to 87% of
the total, therefore they should be the focus of C&D waste manage-
ment. It is worth noting that metal waste accounts for 7% of all C&D
waste in China. Despite a lower share in weight, their environmen-
tal impacts deserve a special look, since they contain some poten-
tially high environmental risk materials, such as heavy metals (Zn,
Cu, Cd and As) [42]. Detailed data could be found in Table S.10.
 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413 411

300 Recycling Landfilling

100%

Million tonnes
200

50%
100

0 0%

(a) Generations (in 2012) (b) Treatment (in 2012)

Fig. 4. C&D waste generation and recycling status: a comparison with EU.

100%
Others*
80% Timber

Ceramic
60%
Brick/Block
40%
Mortar

20% Concrete

Metal
0%
Kuwait US** Norway*** Spain Portugal China

Fig. 5. Comparison of composition of China’s C&D waste with other countries.

3.3. C&D waste potential recycling economic values
Compared with other countries (see Fig. 5), China owns the
highest percentage (7%) of scrap metals in C&D waste, while the
ratio in US is less than 1% [46]. This is arguably due to the fact that
most contemporary buildings in China are made of reinforced con-
crete, which use a large quantity of steel and aluminum alloy in the
structure In Kuwait, the inert waste, including mainly concrete,
mortar, brick and block, contributes to approximate 85% of the
total weight [22]. This is similar to Norway (84%) [2] and the US
(77%) [4].If the ceramic waste is counted in the inert waste, the
proportions of those four scrap materials in Spain, Portugal, and
China would be 91% [23], 96% [30], and 87%, respectively. These
differences reflect the varieties of building structures and building
materials used in different countries. As Cochran et al. [4] pointed
out, in the U.S., concrete block frame accounts for 79.6%, which is
approximately 4 times of wood frame proportion (20.4%). As
shown in Fig. 5, ceramic proportion is larger in Spain than that in
other countries. This is because the Spanish building style is usu-
ally mottled. As a result, the traditional materials such as ceramic
were more preferred in Spain [3]. Norway is a cold-weather coun-
try in the northern part of Europe, and has a wide range of forest.
Consequently, wood material are widely applied in the construc-
tion industry. However, functionalism buildings have emerged at
a historic moment since the Second World War, and building tends
to be simplified and modern [43]. Therefore, more concrete mate-
rials have been used in Norway buildings. As for other countries
shown in Fig. 5, building structures and materials are also different
in Kuwait and Portugal due to various factors such as culture, cli-
mate and building styles.

500 8000

400
Timber 6000 Others
Billion dollar

Million m3

Ceramic
300 Ceramic
Brick/block 4000
200 Brick/block
Mortar

Concrete 2000 Mortar

100
Metal Concrete
0 0
Low high High Low
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. Recycling potential value and landfill volume.
412 L. Zheng et al. / Construction and Building Materials 136 (2017) 405–413
The R-PV of C&D waste in China in 2013 is shown in Fig. 6 (a). It
is noticeable that the recycling economic value is assumed con-
stant in these scenarios for the same type of C&D waste. Under
the worst scenario, the R-PV is around 201 billion US dollars (equals
to approximately the GDP of Qinghai in 2014), which is all from
scrap metals recycling. When the recycling rate is increased to a
high level, the mean value of the total R-PV could raise to 401.6 bil-
lion US dollars. The contribution of the four inert wastes, including
concrete, mortar, brick/block, and ceramic, increases to approxi-
mately 30%. Details of the scenarios can be found in Table S11 in
Supporting information. Therefore, in order to maximize R-PV,
more efforts are required to improve the recycling rate of inert
wastes.
Fig. 6 (b) shows the landfill volume of C&D waste in China in
2013. Under the worst scenario which is relatively close to the cur-
rent situation of C&D waste dumping in China (recycling rate is
extremely low), the mean value of landfill volume is 7.5 billion
m3. If the dumping height is set as 20 m, it would cover 375 mil-
lion m2 land area, which equals to a half of Singapore’s total land
area. Among all kinds of C&D waste, concrete contributes to 53%
of the total landfill volume, followed by brick/block (24.6%) and
ceramic (10.3%). Under the most optimistic scenario, the landfill
volume could be cut by over 90% and then drops to 705.9 mil-
lion m3. However, 46.5% of them are non-inert C&D wastes, which
are the mixtures of various wastes like glass, plastic, gypsum, insu-
lation materials, bituminous, and mixed fragments (Detailed num-
bers can be found in Table S11 in Supporting information. They
may leach heavy metal and critical toxic organic substances and
then present serious environmental risks. This implies that
improving the recycling rate and reducing the landfill rate could
not only increase the R-PV, but also decrease the land use of landfill
as well as associated environmental impacts. Similarly, additional
pollutions should be avoided during the recycling of these
materials.
3.4. Limitations and uncertainties
Based on the data availability, this study selected a weight-per-
construction-area method to quantify the generation of C&D waste
in China. This method provides an explicit approach to estimate
the growth trend of C&D waste in China in the past decade. How-
ever, several limitations should be acknowledged. In particular,
Building Floor Area Ratio was determined by using an average
value of 13 cities in China and may not be representative. Similarly,
the waste production rates were only obtained from our surveys
in Shenzhen (which is comparable with that of Guangzhou
(1350 kg/m2) [52]. Regarding the recycling values estimate, the
changes or market values of recycling goods (metals and recycling
aggregates) were not well defined. Furthermore, we did not con-
sider any forecasting of future C&D waste generation in this study,
which could be very useful to inform relevant policies.
4. Conclusions
Our results provide a comprehensive analysis of generation and
disposals of C&D waste in China for the period of 2003–2013, fol-
lowed by an analysis of their recycling potential value and landfill
volume in 2013. The results are as follows:
(1) The average annual generation of C&D waste is approxi-
mately 2.36 billion tonnes from 2003 to 2013, in which
97% was demolition waste. East China contributed to over
half of C&D waste generated in China. These results show
that demolition waste dominates the C&D waste of China
and should be paid more attention in the relevant waste
management policy.
(2) Regarding the composition of C&D waste, the four inert
wastes (i.e., concrete, mortar, brick/block, and ceramic)
accounted for 87% of the total amount. Compared to devel-
oped countries, the share of scrap metals in China is higher.
As far as scrap metals recycling is concerned, the R-PV is
around 201 billion US dollars (the worst scenario). When
the recycling rate is increased to a high level, for example,
the contribution of the four inert wastes, including concrete,
mortar, brick/block, and ceramic, increases to approximately
30%, the mean value of the total R-PV could raise to 401.6
billion US dollars (the most optimistic scenario). From the
economic perspective, increasing the recycling rate of C&D
waste could benefit the sustainable urban development.
Specifically, this result would be helpful to stimulate inter-
ests of recyclers.
(3) As for the landfill occupation volume, the mean value is 7.5
billion m3. If the dumping height is set as 20 m, it would
cover 375 million m2 land area, which equal to a half of Sin-
gapore’s total land area. The landfill volume could be cut by
over 90% when the recycling rate is increased to the opti-
mistic scenario. This implies that improving C&D waste recy-
cling rate could help to alleviate the contradiction between
supply and demand of land resources in fast-expanding
cities.
Indeed, the effective C&D waste classification management
system has not been established in China due to the insufficient
information of generation characteristics, composition and environ-
ment implications evaluation. As a result, it is difficult to build
reasonable disposal strategy and choose appropriate resource
recovery technology. These findings could help informing scholars,
practitioners, and decision makers for more environmentally sound
management of C&D waste. In addition, our approach adopted in
this study could provide a useful tool for a quick estimation of gen-
eration and flows of C&D waste at the regional and national level.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation
of Introduced High Talent Financial Subsidies of Shenzhen Univer-
sity (000044), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
21507090 and No. 71272088) and Basic Research Project of Shen-
zhen Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology Innovation Pro-
gram Committee (No. JCYJ20150525092941042).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.
2017.01.055.
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