The project of Technologies and Commercialization of Building Solid Waste Recycling led by Professor XIAO Jianzhuang from College of Civil Engineering was awarded a second prize of the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award two weeks ago.
With the development of urbanization in China, building construction, renovation and demolition have produced an enormously huge amount of building solid waste. In 2017, disposal of building solid waste exceeded three billion tons in China. The building solid waste was not only daunting huge, but was unsorted with different and complex components. Therefore, effective disposal and recycling have become a demanding task for the country. At the same time, China is facing an increasingly shortage of natural sandstone.
After many years of research, Professor XIAO's team put forward a set of theories and key technologies of building solid waste recycling, which laid a firm foundation for the safe application of recycled building materials. The technologies were significant in that they not only lowered the environmental hazard of building solid waste, but also reduced the exploitation of such scarce natural resources as sandstone.
As early as 2004, a road was paved with recycled concrete at the campus of Tongji University as was proposed by XIAO. Under the joint efforts of XIAO’s team and the industry, the key technologies of building solid waste recycling have been applied in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Over 50 building solid waste production lines have been established, the first recycled concrete frame structure building and the first recycled masonry structure building set up so far. In the case of Xuchang city, Henan Province, the recycling rate of building solid waste has successfully reached over 95%, achieving remarkable social and environmental benefits.
Through technological innovation and technology transfer, the team developed a process-based system of intellectual property rights from building demolition, waste collection and transportation, research and development of techniques and facilities, recycling technologies and multi-path recycled building material, to commercialization. The team also developed a process-based system of recycling standards, which filled a gap in standards for the recycling of solid waste in China. In 2007, XIAO compiled Technical Code on the Application of Recycled Concrete (Shanghai), the first local technical code for the recycling of building waste; In 2008, XIAO initiated a Recycling Concrete Committee, the first academic organization for solid waste recycling; In 2012, Committee of Construction Waste Management and Recycling, the first professional organization was established. All this has provided strong support for the commercialization and application of the recycled building material technology and for the development of the industry.
