We create 20m tons of construction industry waste each year. Here’s how to stop it going to landfill
The Australian construction industry has grown significantly in the past two decades. Population growth has led to the need for extensive property development, better public transport and improved infrastructure. This means there has been a substantial increase in waste produced by construction and demolition. In 2017, the industry generated 20.4 million tons (or megatonnes, MT) of waste from construction and demolition, such as for road and rail maintenance and land excavation. Typically, the waste from these activities include bricks, concrete, metal, timber, plasterboard, asphalt, rock and soil. Between 2016 and 2017, more than 6.7MT of this waste went into landfills across Australia. The rest is either recycled, illegally dumped, reused, reprocessed or stockpiled. But with high social, economic and environmental costs, sending waste to landfill is the worst strategy to manage this waste. Here's the link to the full article: http://theconversation.com/we-create-20m-tons-of-construction-industry-waste-each-year-heres-how-to-stop-it-going-to-landfill-114602
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