Construction sector termed major source of reusable rubbles

LAHORE: Construction sector is a major source of rubbles, which can be reused for the new structure, an industry guru Akber Shiekh said on Monday.
“In Pakistan, a large chunk of the rubble generated during construction and demolition goes waste,” he said. “The products discarded in dismantling structures could be widely used across the value chain.”
Shiekh said the wreckage contains high concentrations of recyclable steel, wood and concrete. Chip boards and concrete could be used in construction process instead of being dumped on waste land, he added.
“The only barrier against the circular economy is the ingrained habit of wastage,” said Shiekh.
Experts warned that the world may soon face resource crunch as three billion additional consumers from the developing world will likely to enter middle class by 2030, which calls for a shift to circular economy from recycling.
Dr Shahid Zia, a senior market analyst said the developed world is rapidly moving towards the circular economy, which aims to restore resources after use instead of the common system of take, make and dispose.
“Circular economy is a step ahead of recycling,” he said. He added that in recycling resources like plastic and steel are recycled to be used as raw material; in circular economy companies revamp the used components or their parts keeping their efficiency intact.
Dr Zia said multi-foam manufacturers in Pakistan have been providing incentives to the consumers to return their used products and get new ones at discounted rates.
Leading global companies now design and optimise products for multiple cycles of disassembly and reuse. These efforts start with materials, which are viewed as valuable stock to be used again, not as elements that flow through the economy once.
The magnitude of wastage under current manufacturing practices can be judged by the fact that more than 80 percent materials used in fast-moving global consumer-goods industry worth $3.2 trillion are not recovered. Most of this material could be reused.
Dr Zia said products are designed in circular economy in such a way that enables cycles of disassembly and reuse. This way the waste is either eliminated or greatly reduced, he added.
Getting back the product after its full use is a problematic job. To resolve this issue, the role of consumer is being restricted to its user. Since restoration is the default assumption in a circular economy, the role of consumer is replaced by that of user.
In buy-consume economy, the priority of the manufacturer is to sell the product. This will change in circular economy where the producer would rent out the product; so that when it is returned all its materials could be reused. Another way of getting back the products would be to create incentives for the consumers that guarantee return and reuse.
Market analyst Benish Toor said a global manufacturer of office machines, copiers and printers Ricoh has introduced a brand of copiers and printers, which are leased to the consumers. When the products are received back after expiry of leasing agreements, the machines are dismantled and screened extensively for refurbishing. Some components are replaced and software updated before the machines reenter the market.
Quality of refurbished products is good, which is why these refurbished machines account for 10 to 20 percent of Ricoh’s sales in six European countries.
Benish said the company earns two times higher profit without compromising on the quality than it could earn from comparable new products.
Circular economy aims to eradicate waste—not just from manufacturing processes but systematically, throughout the various life cycles and uses of products and their components.
“What we usually perceive as waste may become feedstock for the successive steps. It is the tight component and product cycles of use and reuse, made possible through product design, which distinguishes circular economy from recycling, which loses large amounts of embedded energy and labour,” Benish said.
He added that circular system introduces a strict differentiation between consumable and durable components.
Producers in current day economy often don’t distinguish between the two.
Durable components like plastics and metals are reused or upgraded for other productive processes through innumerable cycles.