Abstract:
The management of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, a major part of solid
waste, is increasingly become a critical challenge in the quest of social, environmental,
and economic sustainability. Innovative and smart technologies are emerging to provide
inevitable benefits because of their capacity to enable digitisation, automation, and
integration of Solid Waste Management (SWM) processes. Nevertheless, the application
of such technologies in Construction and Demolition Waste Management (CDWM) has
not gained the appropriate attention. This study aims to draw insights into the current
and potential use of smart technologies in CDWM. A literature review-based approach
surveyed both academic and applied publications to analyse the current and potential
use of smart technologies in both SWM and CDWM. Altogether, 75 peer-reviewed
articles and technical white papers were analysed. It was found that the usage of smart
technologies is much advanced in SWM and the adoption is still at the prototype stage
in CDWM. The results emphasise that the integration of smart technologies into multiple
processes of CDWM would overcome many issues related to waste minimisation and
management including waste estimation, waste reporting, and data management and
waste diversion. The framework developed in this study contributes to the understanding
of the potential role of each category of technologies in improving the waste
management processes in the C&D sector. This review is useful to waste management
practitioners, regulatory bodies and the government to understand the benefits of
emerging technologies and to the development of effective strategies and future training
programmes.
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