Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ISSN: 2455-5703
Abstract
Construction sector in India needs circular economy for sustainable future. The industry must move its stress yonder recycling and
towards reuse. The 3R’s now include more number of R’s as compared to linear economy. The barriers and the opportunities in
circular economy in construction industry have been discussed in details. Also, circular economy opportunities for India in the
construction sector are described in the paper to give an insight of the Indian construction industry and the circular economy. Thus,
moving towards CE and other sustainability-driven commercial models necessitates a vital change running through the complete
organization involving its stakeholders and will prove to be sustainable for the industry.
Keywords- Circular Economy, Linear Economy, Sustainability, Indian Construction Industry, Barriers, Opportunities
I. INTRODUCTION
Sustainable development necessitates unruly changes and essential innovations, and the ability to carry this with respect to the
adaptation of a sustainable development is desired in large industries. Combination of sustainability and business development is
required which is offered by the Circular Economy (CE) model. CE is diminutively applied in current practice. The linear means
of constructing structures has directed to global challenges and global warming (Bienkowski, 2017).
Urban India is now the world’s 3rd largest garbage producer. It has been reported that alone India produces each day more
than 1,00,000 metric tonnes of solid waste, which is much more than many countries’ total daily (average) waste generation taken
together (TIO, 2017). It has been estimated that between 2000 and 2025 the Indian waste composition will experience the
fluctuations as follows (CPCB, 2000; Agarwal, 2001):
– Organic Waste will rise from 40% to 60%
– Metal from 1% to 4%
– Plastic from 4% to 6%
– Glass from 2% to 3%
– Paper from 5% to 15%
– Other materials such as ash, sand, grit, etc. from 47% to 12%
Moving towards CE and other sustainability-driven commercial models necessitates a vital change running through the
complete organization involving its stakeholders. The combination of sustainability issues and commercial expansion is vital for
culture and social gatherings (Lieder and Rashid, 2016; Holton et al., 2010; Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2013). It has been reported
that CE can be economically feasible (Liu and Bai, 2014), and it is a model merging sustainability and commercial development.
CE is surviving with three tasks: resource insufficiency, environmental impact and rising economic benefits (Holton et al., 2010).
CE is constructing on the ideologies of the spiral loop system (European Commission, 2015); the intent is to retain materials in
utilization instead of disposing them which necessitates the usage of the 4 R’s i.e. repair, reuse, re-condition and recycle (Ritzen
and Sandstroma, 2017).
The following definitions have been found in the literatures studied (Kalmykova et al., 2018):
1) “A general term for reducing, reusing and recycling activities conducted in the process of production, circulation and
consumption” (Govt. of People's Republic of China, 2008).
2) “Circular economy focuses on stock optimization” (Bastein et al., 2013; Stahel, 2013).
3) “An industrial economy in which material flows keeps circulating at a high rate without entering the biosphere unless they are
biological nutrients” (EMF, 2013; Kalmykova et al., 2018).
4) “An alternative to a traditional linear economy in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum
value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life” (WRAP,
2016).
5) “Circular economy is an approach that breaks with the linear economy approach where we incorporate the social and the
physical resources through a (sustainable) business approach. This can be accomplished by slowing, closing, and narrowing
of resource loops” (Ramboll, 2018).
Thus, A CE is uplifting and reformative by design which has the goal to keep materials, components, and products at their
peak usefulness and value all the time. It is, therefore, a non-stop cycle that conserves and improves natural wealth, optimises
source profits, and diminishes system risks.
Fig. 3: Circular economy in India - cities and construction (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013)
A. Materials Consumption
India’s per capita material consumption has been increasing slowly because of the growing population (UNEP, 2013; IGEP,
2013).India’s material productivity which is defined as GDP per used tonne of material is comparatively small, notwithstanding
enhancements over the last decade, and is anticipated to remain behind that of high income nations by 2030 (IGEP, 2013). It is
predicted that if India preserves the economic development leap of the past few decades, it will require more than triple of its
demand for resources by 2030 (UNEP, 2013; IGEP, 2013).
According to the present growth rate, it is suggested that by 2020, the Indian construction industry will be the greatest
material-consuming sector in India (GIZ, 2016).CE philosophies could alleviate against supply disruptions and unpredictable
resource price fluctuations by decoupling the construction from GHG emissions, use of non-renewable energy sources, and finite
consumption of resources.
C. Modular Construction
Industrialised manufacturing, modularisation, and components’ standardisation can decrease the time, cost, and materials
consumption of construction, permitting swift building of reasonable and inexpensive dwellings. Constructing modular buildings
in layers permits the reconfiguration of spaces and decreases functional undesirability and maintenance costs. Digital technologies
like building information modelling (BIM) can support the revolution of construction techniques. WorldHaus in India is using
components which are modular and prefabricated for the manufacturing of reasonable dwellings solutions. In Chennai (2011), they
built their 1st prototype house which utilizes 20% less cement, sand and 80% less construction steel than the conventional masonry
construction (www.worldhaus.com). Utilization of BIM and RFID (radio frequency identification) could help in predicting the
performance and efficiency of the materials, carry design of disassembly and facilitate preventive maintenance. These technologies
sustain the utilization of buildings as materials banks, thereby identifying materials for reuse after buildings’ useful life and
capturing value by keeping the materials in very tight loops.
Cement industry in India is alone responsible for about 7% of the nation’s GHG emissions (GIZ, 2016). The increase in
demand for the buildings leads to replacement of the conventional materials such as cement, bricks, aggregates, etc with those of
the materials locally available or exhibiting similar properties or are recycled or renewed for the use so as to reduce the GHG
emissions, energy utilization and consumption of the materials. For example, bamboo is fast-growing being grown in diverse
conditions and is readily available almost everywhere in India (FSI, 2011) which can be utilized as a replacement of the steel
reinforcement in various conditions. Recycling of construction waste reduces the consumption of conventional materials (Centre
for Science and Environment India, 2014).
6) Cultural - deficient awareness and/or willingness to involve with CE, deficient awareness of the consumer and their interest,
doubtful company culture, partial willingness to collaborate in the value chain.
7) Regulatory - deficient policies in support of a CE transition, lacking global consensus, hindering laws and regulations,
government regulations creating waste.
8) Market - deficient economic viability of circular business models, low virgin material prices, limited funding for CE models,
high upfront investment costs, standardization absent, expectations of the consumers’ for convenience.
9) Environmental- willingness to adopt ‘green’ measures, attitude towards green policies (Bradford and Fraser, 2007; Preston,
2012; IMSA, 2013; Rizos et al., 2015; Shahbazi et al., 2016; Ritzen and Sandstroma, 2017; Pheifer, 2017; Mont et al., 2017).
VI. CONCLUSION
Integration is required between a number of diverse perspectives and fields in establishments supporting a more explorative and
innovative method. Familiarity with CE has to be keep on growing and a more explorative mode of working would beneficial.
This will thus, help to overcome the various barriers to the implementation of CE in Indian construction industry and provide more
opportunities for a sustainable development.
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