Waste Reduction And Use Of Alternative Materials In Construction For Carbon Emission Reduction

Importance of Waste Reduction in Construction

Dsicuss about the Role Of Waste Reduction And Use Of The Alternative.

Waste production in construction is an emerging thereat in construction industry. A lot of wastes are being produced during construction activities and there is need to come up with a viable waste reduction mechanism. Alternative materials and especially in the carbon reduction technologies have been embraced and encouraged highly in construction industry (Alarcon? 2014). In addition, the waste management and reduction mechanisms play a critical role in the construction industry. These alternative measures are currently being used to enhance the economic visibility of the construction projects. In addition, through alternative construction materials, environmental conservation is usually achieved. Different materials and wastes produced in the construction are key producers and emitters of carbon from the structures. Therefore minimizing the wastes will mean reducing the amount of carbon emitted from the buildings (Fewings 2013). This means that waste management and reduction are able to play a crucial role in the reduction of carbon in construction activities.

In addition, use of alternative materials in construction with the aim of reducing the carbon production and emissions has been keenly taking place. It is assumed that proper material selection, carbon missions can be reduced by 50% over the structures lifetime (Bumble 2000). The use of the alternative materials has been connected with different benefits in the construction industry. These benefits include reduction of material wastes and use in construction projects, less reliance on energy intensive routes and good environmental conservation. Change of materials in the construction industry is important to ensure that carbon emission is reduced (Cai et al. 2012). In details, this paper will look at the ways and roles played by the waste reduction and use of alternative materials in construction in order to reduce carbon emissions.

First, the use of alternative materials in the control of amount of carbon emitted from buildings has been a matter of great concern. The use of intrinsically materials with lower embodied carbon in construction has been a great subject of interests in many problems (Towey 2013). These materials are able to play a key role in enhance the environmental effectiveness due to the lower release of carbon. In addition, the alternative materials such as carbon embodied materials are used less than the other materials and this is able to lower the carbon emission by a greater factor. Alternative materials are therefore able to play an important role in enhancing the effectiveness of building operations.

Use of Alternative Materials in Construction to Reduce Carbon Emission

Buildings effectiveness is currently measured in terms of their environmental friendliness. With the increase and rise of climate change, reduction of greenhouse gases is one major issue which the world is focusing on (Khire et al, 2008). The GHS production has led to innovation of alternative materials in construction which will ensure that GHS gases such as carbon are widely reduced. The low carbon or simply embodied carbon materials are able to reduce the carbon emission from the structured by up to 50% for the lifetime of the buildings. With these alternative materials, the environmental conservation is widely achieved.  The alternative materials are able to play a key role in conserving the environment through reduction of these gases. Materials such as Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) and Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag (GGBS) are able to play this role when they replace cement in the construction projects (Senapathi et al. 2010). PFA and GGBS are able to replace some portion of cement in their application and this ensures that the amount of carbon emitted is widely reduced.

In addition, most of these alternative materials are highly recyclable. This is a key factor when it comes to reduction of carbon emission and disposal to the environment. Much of wastes from construction usually find themselves without alternative use. Since they have high carbon in them, the carbon is disposed off and this increases the pollution of the environment (In Ekstro?m 2015). Using the alternative materials which can be reused is vital in reducing the carbon in the construction industry. Technological advancement has ensured that these materials have alternative uses and this ensure that they are used for long periods. The long lifetime ensures that their disposal is delayed and thus the carbon emission to the environment is highly reduced. The materials play a key role in enhancing cost effectiveness of the construction industry while reducing carbon emission to the environment.

Moreover, the alternative materials have been able to enhance the cost effectiveness of the construction industry. In many cases, these alternative materials are designed with the aim of enhancing the cost effectiveness in the construction industry. As they try to minimize the carbon emission, the materials are way cheaper than some of the current construction materials. For instance, the cost of cement and PFA are way too different. PFA helps to reduce high cost of the construction by replacing about 40% of cement in construction (Meyers 2012). Therefore even with the role of reducing carbon, the materials also play a critical role in ensuring that construction exercise is affordable. In addition, sustainability is another role which every building material has to achieve.

Recyclability of Alternative Materials in Construction

The alternative materials are designed to last for longer and ensure that the buildings are sustainable. The sustainability if building structures looks at different aspects which include the environmental factors, socio-economic factors as well as cultural factors. The alternative materials in construction plays important roles in ensuring that they are able to satisfy all these factors in order to achieve sustainability. The alternative materials are able to satisfy these factors by ensuring that the buildings have high performance, and that they are economical in terms of energy and resource consumption. Sustainability is high connected with reduction of costs and mostly, these materials are energy efficient (Ames et al. 2011). The materials are designed to rely of renewable sources of energy which ensure that the carbon emission in the structures is highly reduced. In addition, the materials are able to appeal to the clients and address their cultural preferences. In their design, the alternative materials move to meet the different needs of the clients and ensure they are satisfied in terms of the material functionality.

Most of the waste products in the construction industry are responsible for the increase of the carbon production. Materials in construction such as concrete, sheets and timber compose of some high percentages of carbon which when disposed pollute the environment. Measures to reduce the waste products from the construction industry therefore play a key role in controlling the carbon pollution. Design of key materials which are reusable has been a major drive of the construction industry (Meyer 2012). A key consideration has been made to ensure that any product designed for the industry will have alternative uses to ensure that the wastes from the industry are controlled.

In addition, in reducing wastes, best practices are usually encourages to ensure that the wastes are controlled. In the construction industry, most of the wastes are achieved through careless placement procedures which lead to pollution of soil since the products contain carbon contaminants. For instance, research shows that about 4% of concrete goes into waste during casting due to the practices adopted. Therefore reducing wastes in order to control the carbon pollution plays a critical role in ensuring that better working procedures are adopted (Ontario 2009). These methods are important in ensuring that the materials are not wasted while working. Timber, metals bricks and other construction materials are widely wasted and measured to reduce the wastage are critical to control the carbon pollution.

Cost Effectiveness and Sustainability Benefits of Alternative Materials

In addition, the control of wastage on carbon reduction is important since it ensures that environmental conservation is achieved. The wastage of these materials leads to addition of carbon in soils which is harmful for both the crops and other microorganisms (Dourou et al. 2018). The control of the wastage is able to ensure that only the unavoidable amount of wastage is able to fall out. This helps to conserve the environment and ensure that the ecosystem has the right quantities of the requirement for the organisms to survive. Therefore the control on wastage of construction products plays an important role in conserving the environment and ensuring that other organisms have their clean environment.

Lastly, the control of wastage plays a critical role in economical sustainability of the projects. The initiative of waste reduction has led to production of materials which are fit to different areas and therefore does not require reduction (Salzer, Wallbaum, Ostermeyer & Kono 2017). Light gauge steel has been improvised and is produced according to the requirement size from site. This has ensured that material wastage is high reduced and thus reducing the additional costs which were resulting from wastage.

In conclusion, material wastage reduction and alternative materials in construction industry are aimed at reducing carbon production. In addition, these measures play important roles in economical sustainability of the projects as well as environmental conservation. As long as the carbon reduction is the main goals of designing new materials and wastage control, other roles are as well achieved by these measures. These measures play an important role in enhancing the cost effectiveness of the projects. Lastly, new materials ensure that the buildings are able to meet the design parameters and last long to achieve their performance.

References

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