TY - JOUR
T1 - Zero Waste Systems
T2 - Barriers and Measures to Recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste
AU - Abarca-Guerrero, Lilliana
AU - Lobo-Ugalde, Susi
AU - Méndez-Carpio, Nicole
AU - Rodríguez-Leandro, Rosibel
AU - Rudin-Vega, Victoria
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - Urbanization, population growth, increased consumption, infrastructure, and housing needs are some of the factors that result in increased waste. Recycling has been a crucial way to reduce the amount of materials that end up in disposal sites and is how citizens, more aware of the impacts on the environment, participate in some of the schemes to reduce waste. Zero waste is an approach developed to preserve the finite resources available, but major barriers are hindering its efficient and effective implementation. This study intended to unveil those barriers in the Costa Rican construction sector and to propose measures to increase the recycling rates. In order to achieve the objective, construction companies, cement producers, waste managers, personnel of refuse material facilities, waste transformers, construction material distributors, and a director of the Ministry of Health were interviewed to determine the challenges in the valorization of concrete, wood, metal, and packaging waste materials. This article reports the findings, which include, among others, the fact that most construction companies dispose the waste without any separation, except for metals. The cement producer companies do not participate in any form of collection system in spite of the available technology and equipment and the absence of innovative technologies for the transformation of materials.
AB - Urbanization, population growth, increased consumption, infrastructure, and housing needs are some of the factors that result in increased waste. Recycling has been a crucial way to reduce the amount of materials that end up in disposal sites and is how citizens, more aware of the impacts on the environment, participate in some of the schemes to reduce waste. Zero waste is an approach developed to preserve the finite resources available, but major barriers are hindering its efficient and effective implementation. This study intended to unveil those barriers in the Costa Rican construction sector and to propose measures to increase the recycling rates. In order to achieve the objective, construction companies, cement producers, waste managers, personnel of refuse material facilities, waste transformers, construction material distributors, and a director of the Ministry of Health were interviewed to determine the challenges in the valorization of concrete, wood, metal, and packaging waste materials. This article reports the findings, which include, among others, the fact that most construction companies dispose the waste without any separation, except for metals. The cement producer companies do not participate in any form of collection system in spite of the available technology and equipment and the absence of innovative technologies for the transformation of materials.
KW - construction industry
KW - measures for valorization of construction waste
KW - recycling
KW - zero waste barriers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85142714259&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/su142215265
DO - 10.3390/su142215265
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85142714259
SN - 2071-1050
VL - 14
JO - Sustainability (Switzerland)
JF - Sustainability (Switzerland)
IS - 22
M1 - 15265
ER -