Usage of Waste Materials from Construction for Light Concrete Tiles Production in Oman - Case Study Example

The industry is traditionally regarded as an environmental hazard; given that contractors gain rewards based on contractual speed as opposed to consideration for the environmental impact created by such works. Additionally, construction consumes large amounts of energy and raw materials while producing significantly high amounts of solid waste. From a global perspective, the industry consumes about 25% of sand, gravel, and raw stone as well as 40% virgin wood on an annual basis. In the US for instance, 40% of extracted materials are used to construct building components and during actual production (Fulford & Standing 2014).

Other derivatives of construction works include various pollution, generation of solid waste, depletion of natural resources, land deterioration, and land development. The construction industry accounts for approximately 35% of global industrial waste. In the EU (European Union), this form of waste is about two to five times the amount of household waste quantities generated in the total waste output. Furthermore, the construction industry has significant labor wastage; about 30% of rework, while approximately 10% of all raw materials for construction are wasted on-site for every construction project (Nagapan et al. 2013). This form of wastage has input to negative social, economic, and environmental implications.

Uncontrolled landfills lead to land deterioration, water, and soil contamination. Contractors suffer financial burdens as a result of disposals, delays, costs of rework, and new purchases for the replacement of wasted materials. Social implications include safety, health as well as the image created by the industry at the societal level. During waste management, construction waste is highly prioritized using such approaches as disposal, recycling, or reduction. Construction waste managers propose that prior to disposal, recycling; sorting, reusing, and reduction methods should be applied.

Recycling is especially meaningful for future urban development and improvement and environmental protection. Other than recycling, inert end-of-life products are usable for a such rationale as land fillers during reclamation. Inert materials include broken concrete, rocks, soil, slurry, and earth while non-inert materials include plastics, timbers, metal, and packaging (Ann et al. 2013). Amidst the alarming rate of construction waste, such waste has approximately 80% potential for recovery by recycling.

In line with this, countries like Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark have embarked on the recycling of construction waste and have yielded tremendous results; with the major drive to recycling being a scarcity of disposal sites and raw materials. Even so, most of the construction waste eventually culminates in landfills. In the UK for instance, about 89.6 million tons of such waste was generated in 2014, while about 27 million of the waste ended up in landfills (Evangelisti et al. 2014). Construction waste in Developing countries Construction waste is increasingly becoming a pressing issue for developing countries.

This is alongside having social, economic, and environmental effects. The main issue in most countries is the illegal dumping of physical construction wastes; with expended intangible wastes such as time wasted and the attached costs of such wastes. Developing countries are experiencing socio-economic developments in terms of rapidly increasing populations, shifting consumer behaviors, high demands for infrastructural projects, and improving living standards; leading to a rapidly growing construction industry (De Sousa 2014). This growth has had significant input on the rising levels of construction waste generation in these countries; resulting in a variety of implications for societal economic dynamics and drastic environmental effects.