Extract

The construction industry is at the core of the global economy and in New Zealand it is the fifth largest industry. One global issue with the construction industry is that it generates a large amount of waste; making it unsustainable. In N.Z., Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste is the most prevalent waste stream and contributes to half of the landfill waste. In recent years, C&D waste has become an alarming issue for the N.Z. construction industry and emphasises the urgent need for waste minimisation. This research study adopts in-depth review of literature. The literature findings on the state-of-the-art of C&D waste minimisation suggested that the current waste minimisation approaches are far from optimum and need integration to increase their practicability. In addition, the review of the literature shows that the N.Z. construction industry needs to adopt life cycle study, i.e. Pre-design, design, construction, refurbishment, and demolition to minimise C&D waste. Further, some of the factors which need special attention are; industrial diversity thinking during pre-design, change in scope while designing, poor resource management during construction, and lack of secondary market. The N.Z. construction industry needs to adopt a circular resource thinking to achieve circular economy; ultimately advocate sustainable construction.

Keywords: Construction industry; sustainable construction; construction & demolition waste; New Zealand

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