Plastics in construction and demolition (C&D) waste seem to be of little interest, as their mass contribution to the total is negligible. However, there is a variety of plastics used by the sector. Are you aware of any studies where polymer composition of the C&D waste was described?
Mr. Pivnenko, I don’t know if there is any study to cover this category of waste, it is not easy to make a general classification of the plastic component in the C&D wastes because their composition varies between sites, regions, social level etc. Generally, the following plastic/ polymeric materials could be found in demolition waste: synthetic bitumen from petroleum (pitch) present in roofs, plastic and rubber materials from cables (PVC, polyolefin such as polyethylene, polypropilene, elastomers: polyisobutylene, ethylene propylene rubber), plastic pipes (HDPE, MDPE), PVC windows frames and doors, wall coatings containing resins, thermal insulating materials (polystyrene, polyurethane), epoxy resins for floors, laminate flooring materials (melamine resin, acrylic varnish), polymer-based adhesives (neoprene rubber, silicone rubber) etc…. Practically, a wide range of plastics that probably were not accurately inventoried.
This guide released under a Life Project approached the topic you are interested in. Maybe you could find here some useful information. But the project is quite old... completed in 2006.
http://www.acrplus.org/images/pdf/document142.pdf
Please go through the following articles:
Article Bisphenol A in hazardous waste landfill leachates
Data A review on the viable technology for construction waste recycling
Article On-site sorting of construction and demolition waste in Hong Kong
Article Use of selected waste materials in concrete mixes
Dear Karmen,
Thank you for your input. C&D is indeed a highly heterogeneous waste and providing reliable composition for such waste stream can be a challenge. This is particularly true for plastics, as they represent only minor fraction of typical C&D waste on the global scale. Thank you for providing the link to the APPRICOD project, while I was aware of the project itself I had not previously seen the final report. It looks like there are no recent publications that deal with plastics in the C&D waste.
As other stated, C&D waste is not easily quantified across the industry. You will find more insulation-related polymers in residential housing as well as an increase in PVC as polymers supplant metals in low pressure plumbing.
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