STUDY OF CHALLENGES

AND BARRIERS IN C&D

WASTE MANAEMENT
Prepared For – Ms. Archana Datta (FICCI Quality
Forum)

Integrated Project
This study is conducted as part of the academic program for the course PGP-Sustainable
Management at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (Noida Campus).

Rabin Thakur
PGPSM03025@IIML.AC.IN
Abstract:
This work is intended to understand the state of
construction and demolition waste in India.
Having a strong focus on construction activities
in the state of Delhi and adjoining areas of
NCR, this exploratory research combines
primary research with secondary research to
identify problems and anticipated solutions.
Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste is
becoming a constant worry to manage in the
wake of landfills being utilised multiple time
above their capacity. Also, construction sector
being one of the most resource-intensive sectors
has implications for sustainability. In the wake
of above arguments, there is a need to bring in
circularity in the value chain of building
materials used in construction.
This research thus tries to identify the
challenges and issues faced by the developers
in order to manage C&D waste and the possible
measures for addressing the issues.
Introduction
India is one of the fastest growing economies of
the world. According to the latest data, the
Indian economy reported growth of 7.1% (year-
on-year) in the first quarter of 2018-19. Key
sector driving this growth is the construction
sector in India. The construction sector of any
economy is its most significant driver towards
development but at the same time it is highly
resource intensive. In India, the sector is
expected to oversee a steady growth of about
10% for the next decade.
This growth will bring along with itself a
significant increase in construction activities.
These activities have further implications in the
amount of waste it is expected to generate.
Implementation of effective waste management
practices become key issue for construction
sites. Major challenges identified for waste
management by some research works include
lack of awareness, lack of ownership, client
preference, enforcement of policies to name a
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few (Arif, Sutrisna, Toma‐Sabbagh, & Bendi,
2012).
The complex nature of operations and heavy
dependence on natural resources are factors
which attracts attention to the negative
externalities the construction sector creates for
the ecosystem. Building construction concerns
intensive use of land, energy and water. Due to
criticality of buildings for humans as it serves
for habitat needs, it seems next to impossible to
avoid consumption of natural resources.
However, the shrinking stock of resources
implies the need for their wise, judicious and
mindful use. Common human response to this
problem is opting for alternate or recycled
materials for construction (Bardhan, 2011).
Waste generated from construction sites is non-
hazardous in nature, thus can be handled with
comparative ease. For the same reason,
recycling construction waste is regarded as one
of the best alternatives for handling and
management of such waste. Studies have
suggested that 80% of the waste generated at
the construction phase shall be prepared for re-
use, recycling and recovery (Pacheco-Torgal,
Cabeza, Labrincha, & Magalhaes, 2014).
However, it is a common fact that construction
waste recycling is a distant concept in the
Indian construction sector. This study is thus an
exploratory study to find out the specific
barriers and challenges for increasing
awareness of utilising construction and
demolition waste for recycling. The developers
are expected to have very low levels of
awareness about the recycling facilities for
construction waste.
Problems
There are several issues surrounding handling
and disposal of C&D waste. Unlike the western
countries where C&D waste is seen as a
resource, particularly concrete, which is
recycled and used for different structural
applications. C&D waste has following
problems associated with it:
Dumping: The C&D waste is considered to be
bulky waste that is usually dumped in landfills.
However, with the landfills reaching their
ultimate capacity, the waste is also being
dumped in open areas around the construction
sites. This waste moves towards water bodies,
specifically rivers and obstructs the flow of
water. This even leads to flash floods during
monsoons in certain regions of western India
(Anagal V, 2012, n.d.).
Dependence on Natural Resource:
Construction sector uses building materials
which make the sector heavily dependent on the
natural environment. Depletion of natural
resources like water and sand makes a strong
case against the current rate at which resource
consumption is happening.
Limited Awareness of Recycling C&D Waste:
With sustainability a greater concern among
business, concept of 5 R’s is gaining a lot of
interests of the corporates when there is a talk
about managing waste. 5R stands for Reduce,
Reprocess, Reuse, Recycle and Recover.
Construction sector, despite being a huge
consumer of natural resources, lacks to perform
on any of the components of 5R. On the other
hand, UK, USA, France, Japan and many other
developed economies have recycling facilities
for managing C&D waste and record near about
85% of recycling of C&D waste (Thomas &
Wilson, P M, 2013).
Current State
There are two sources of waste generation,
namely bulk generators and retail or small
retailers. The following figure classifies the
bulk generators and small generators.
i C&D waste classification
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The bulk generators of waste are the
infrastructure development sector and real
estate sector. Works under bulk generators
include construction and repair works of roads,
bridges, flyovers etc. that are classified under
the infrastructure development sector. Bulk
generation of waste from real estate sector
comprises of housing, industrial, and
commercial building construction, demolition
of unauthorized structures etc. On the other
hand, small commercial enterprises and
individual house building teams are classified
as retail or small waste generators (Thomas &
Wilson, P M, 2013).
The contributors of this construction &
demolition waste in any building project are
innumerous. It includes passive contributors in
the form of suppliers, logistics and designers
while active contributors in the form of
contractor, owner and site managers.
The current practice of waste disposal is
particularly a linear chain where manual labour
is first employed to segregate C&D waste and
first-hand recovery of metals is done. These
recovered metals are sold in secondary market
at discounted rates. Mechanical separation of
recovery materials required machinery which
as cost intensive and thus almost always
undesirable to use. The materials sold to
secondary markets fetch money for the
developers thus, they are not even considered
for recycling and rather willingly sold in the
secondary markets. The rest of the waste is
considered to carry no value and thus the whole
lot is sent to landfills.
The responsibility of removing the waste
primarily rests on the builder/owner. However,
it is offloaded to demolition contractors
offering them a small sum of payment which
itself is material-based. Municipal bodies are
held with the responsibility of managing solid
waste. Since C&D waste is a solid waste,
municipal bodies notify landfill sites for
disposal of such waste. The material left after
the necessary recovery is sent to the landfills. In
the long run, recycling of this waste is needed
in view of over-utilisation of the landfill
capacity and increasing quantum of C&D waste
(TIFAC, 2001, n.d.).
The typical composition of C&D waste is soil,
sand, gravel making up nearly a third of the
waste while waste concrete makes up the next
quarter of contribution. Combinedly this makes
up to approximately 60% of the waste. Bricks
and mortar make up the next one-third and
miniscule quantities make up the by metals,
bitumen, wood and others (Anagal V, 2012,
n.d.).
Identifying Gaps through
Primary Data
The study of literature is supported by primary
research wherein industry professionals have
been interviewed to understand what the
barriers and challenges are in utilising the C&D
waste from the end of developers. The
exploratory nature of the primary research was
also intended to understand the current policy
scenario surrounding C&D waste management
and its implications for the developers. Lastly,
a relationship between limited awareness of
managing C&D waste and the intent to recycle
that waste by developers was studied. The
following texts shall be the outcome of the
exploratory research.
Weak Institutional and Regulatory
Framework: The institutional mechanism to
collect, transport, store (if need be) and dispose
the C&D waste is very weak. From the
interaction with developers, it was revealed that
disposal is most of the times not even in line
with the practices prescribed by the municipal
authority.
Lack of Co-ordination: The developers are
concerned about the lack of co-ordination
between different stakeholders involved in the
waste management process namely, the
municipality, project owners, waste handlers,
recycling facilities, to name a few. Project
owners do not usually charge the waste
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management in their contracts and thus
managing waste from projects becomes a cost
to the developers. Additionally, municipality
charges developers prior to approving the
project however, developers end up paying at
the recycling facility for disposing the waste.
Uncertain Material Characteristics: The
recycled materials, even while being used at
very small scale (only for non-structural
applications) are not perceived of physical
properties expected for quality construction.
Developers are concerned about the changes in
material properties due to recycling and that
would affect the quality of construction which
is a critical factor. According to one of the
verbatim of a developer, the amount of water
we need to use to maintain water-cement ratio
will change when using recycled sand or virgin
river sand but how much will it change is
something, we aren’t aware of yet because no
code mentions that.
Lack of Markets for Recycled Materials:
Recycled materials have nearly no uptake in the
market. Except for some usage in non-structural
works, recycled materials find no takers. Lack
of buyers lead to weak seller markets and
eventually no eco-system to develop markets
for recycled materials.
Short-term Outlook of Developers: The
developers outlook towards the problem is
more focussed on managing the waste and most
respondents were unaware of the long-term
effects construction sector will have on the
availability of natural resources. The costs
incurred in developing recycling facilities is
seen in short-run as huge costs. They are much
in oblivion to the implications of recycling
waste in the long run wherein their costs of
obtaining resources
Measures to Address the Gaps
The gaps identified through primary study are
in line with different literature that has been
reviewed in order to prepare for the exploratory
study. The following text shall now mention
some measures which can address the gaps
mentioned before.
Synergy between Different Stakeholders:
C&D waste management has traditionally been
governed by regulations pertaining to the
municipal solid wastes. Solid waste
management is covered under different
regulations under both centre and state.
Additionally, some guidelines are also
mentioned in the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) and subsequent State Pollution
Control Boards (SPCBs). In order to hold the
generator responsible for the waste they
generate, segregate it for disposal and actually
disposing off the waste at designated places
(recycling facilities preferably) a synergy is
required between different bodies governing
C&D waste as well as the developer who is
actually generating the waste. Hauling fees is
paid to municipality yet ownership of C&D
waste lies with the developer and has to dispose
it off again at a cost apart from what has been
paid to municipality already. Synergy could
thus help in minimising the transaction cost for
developer and their intent to manage the waste
better would develop.
Consistent guidelines shall be prepared by
regulating authorities and implemented by
different stakeholders like Municipal
Authorities, Waste Generator, Pollution
Control Boards, Engineers, Designers and
Architects and finally the Developers. Current
guidelines seem inconsistent and contradictory
to each other which creates disorder over the
responsibility of different parties involved in
handling the C&D waste.
Mandatory Usage of Certain Materials: This
measure is practiced in traces though for green
building certification wherein the materials
used in construction are supposed to be sourced
in a green way. Green refers to recycled, either
in part or on a whole. The IS codes meant for
design and usage of materials could stipulate
use of materials which have come from
recycling of C&D waste. Additionally, the
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codes should also add worked-out examples of
how the product quality changes when it is
sourced from virgin material vis-à-vis recycled
materials.
Reporting on Waste Management: A
mechanism to report on scientific measures
developed and used to account for C&D waste
from particular site may help in disposing off
C&D waste in the anticipated manner i.e. send
to recycling facility.
Green certification GRIHA expects reduced
waste during construction and prescribes
reductions under different criteria also
nominating certain points against them in order
to influence the deconstruction process to be
systematic. On similar lines, LEED
certification includes provisioning for
managing C&D waste by proper storage,
collection of recyclable waste, reusing elements
of buildings like walls, floors, envelopes, etc.
These certifications help in educating the
developers about the ways they can reduce
waste or utilise waste by recycling.
Limitations of Study
A major limitation of the study can be
highlighted that it is done keeping in mind the
geographic limit of Delhi NCR. However, the
waste management guidelines are uniform all
over the country, so it is expected that
respondents have had similar experience
handling C&D waste in different parts of the
country where they have been in capacity of site
managers.
Also, since the respondents have been analysed
qualitatively over their responses, subjectivity
in interpretation of researcher and personal bias
of respondents does come into play. In response
to the same, the responses have been analysed
from the purview of secondary literature
available in order to abstain from subjectivity
and bias, as much was possible.
References

 Anagal V, 2012. (n.d.). (PDF) construction

and demolition waste management with
reference to case study of Pune. Retrieved
February 18, 2019, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
256677141_construction_and_demolition
_waste_management_with_reference_to_
case_study_of_Pune
 Arif, M., Sutrisna, M., Toma‐Sabbagh, T.,
& Bendi, D. (2012). Construction waste
management in India: an exploratory
study. Construction Innovation, 12(2),
133–155.
https://doi.org/10.1108/147141712112159
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 Bardhan, S. (2011). Assessment of water
resource consumption in building
construction in India (pp. 93–101).
Presented at the ECOSUD 2011, Alicante,
Spain.
https://doi.org/10.2495/ECO110081
 Pacheco-Torgal, F., Cabeza, L. F.,
Labrincha, J., & Magalhaes, A. G. de.
(2014). Eco-efficient Construction and
Building Materials: Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA), Eco-Labelling and Case Studies.
Woodhead Publishing.
 Thomas, J., & Wilson, P M. (2013).
Construction waste management in India.
American Journal of Engineering
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 TIFAC, 2001. (n.d.). Utilisation of Waste
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