OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO CONSTRUCTION & DEMOLITION (C&D) WASTE RECYCLING IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste constitutes as high as 20 to 30 percent of the total waste disposed in landfills worldwide (Bossink and Brouwers, 1996). Conventional methods of disposal for C&D waste such as in the past are no longer sufficient and environmentally sustainable, and thus there is an increasing demand by many environmental researchers to reduce, reuse and recycle C&D waste.

Current efforts at C&D waste recycling still remain inadequate, and in particular, Singapore does not have a proper legislative framework on C&D recycling to encourage a conscientious recycling culture among the local contractors. This research study aims to evaluate and overcome the challenges of C&D waste recycling in Singapore and propose recommendations to engage greater commitment and enthusiasm from the local construction industry and more support from the government. Existing local policies and regulations will be reviewed and then overseas case studies will be examined. A survey questionnaire will also be electronically sent out to local contractors to find out more on the adequacy of local C&D waste policies, as well as the C&D waste recycling culture in Singapore.

Through the survey, it was revealed that many of the contractors were actually unfamiliar with C&D waste recycling, and they also perceived that there would be little savings in recycling C&D waste. Despite having a statistically weak validity as a result of low response rate, the survey findings served as a supplementary descriptive analysis for the recommendations proposed through the case study methodology. Concluding, this study proposes that the implementation of a legislative framework for C&D waste recycling should be also accompanied with economic incentives so as to engage contractors in more active C&D waste recycling.