An Empirical Investigation of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in China’s Pearl River Delta

Abstract

With the fast development of the Chinese economy, a large number of newly-built building and demolition projects produce a large amount of construction wastes and they will further deteriorate in the future. However, the Chinese government isn’t paying adequate attention to the generation and treatment of construction wastes. Most construction waste are not treated properly, which causes a serious damage to the environment. Through adopting the questionnaire research method, this paper analyzes the current situations of each subdivided project’s scrape ratio in China’s Pearl River Delta, as well as the recycling rate of each construction waste in the process of tearing down architectures. The research proposes 14 influence factors and finds the main reasons include: The government doesn’t offer adequate support to the minimization management of construction wastes; there lacks plans of managing construction wastes on construction sites; the on-site management personnel have inadequate understanding of the minimization management of construction wastes. According to researches, the most effective measures include “adopting the BIM technology, which can effectively lower the generation of architectural products; the government imperfects relevant policies, laws and regulations, strengthens the efforts of supervision and provides tax-redemption and subsidiaries, promotes the recycling and reusing of various construction wastes. The research results can provide strategic reference for stakeholders to formulate the strategies of managing the minimization of construction wastes.