Status quo and future directions of construction and demolition waste research: A critical review

Due to significant environmental, social, and economic impacts, the last decades have witnessed a rapid growth of research related to construction and demolition (C&D) waste. By employing a systematic literature review approach, this study examined C&D waste related articles published since the 1990s in order to explore future research directions. Results show the current C&D waste research has been carried out from various perspectives. These mainly include environmental science and environmental engineering, material science and engineering, industrial ecology, management science, and architecture, engineering, construction and operation of buildings. Consequently, several future research opportunities are identified. These future research opportunities are: (1) identifying pollutants in C&D waste derived from industrial buildings; (2) developing comprehensive pollutant control measures to treat C&D waste; (3) improving the recyclability of C&D waste; (4) developing the advanced performance evaluation criteria for wasted materials and recycled products; (5) extending the research boundary of C&D waste flows; (6) understanding the dynamics and mobility during the life cycle of C&D waste; (7) developing C&D waste disposal charging system; (8) developing advanced methods to assess the C&D waste management performance; (9) exploring the more efficient use of information technologies in C&D waste management; (10) reducing C&D waste from early project stages; and (11) reducing C&D waste during the building operation. These findings are not only valuable to better understand the C&D waste research, but also useful to assist practitioners to further improve C&D waste management performance, and mitigate associated pollution. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.