A survey on the construction and demolition waste in Mongolia

Abstract

n many developing countries, the rapid growth of town and cities has generated a rising levels of waste and illegal dumps have become a serious issue. The booming construction industry in Mongolia has resulted in the production of massive amounts of CDW which is one of the largest waste streams. In Ulaanbaatar (UB) and other cities in Mongolia, the construction waste is dumped illegally. In order to promote the sustainability of the building industry, plenty of regulations focusing on reducing or recycling the CDW have been carried out worldwide. This paper investigates the current CDW management in Mongolia and proposes a quantification of the amount of CDW in UB by using a Material Flow Analysis (MFA). Questionnaire surveys and interviews were conducted with main stakeholders in construction and recycling sector. From the questionnaire results, it is clear that the awareness about the CDW issues in Mongolia is low among the principal stakeholders in the sector, such as Government agencies and construction companies. On the other hand, recycling in Mongolia belongs to an informal sector and the lack of investment constitutes a major problem. In this regards, the technical and non-technical solutions to improve CDW management system are proposed. A stricter control of landfilling for CDW and a creation of a dedicated regulatory framework specific to CDW are needed. To increase the recovery and recycling rates of materials an optimum demolition strategy (for example process, costs, logistics, procedures, timing) is recommended.