Evaluating the Role of Recycling Materials in Construction Industry (Case Study: City of Tehran)

Deploying new construction technologies and materials has solved many environmental problems caused by building waste materials, namely saves energy and natural resources, and reduces environmental pollutants through reusing and recycling building materials and increasing lifespan and durability of the materials. Nonetheless, in developing countries like Iran, due to lack of the Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste management plans and these new technologies, merely negligible amounts of C&D waste materials are recycled annually, resulting in environmental pollution and heavy costs in metropolitan cities such as Tehran. In this paper, along with reviewing previous researches done in the field of recycling building materials, their significant role and embodied energies in the environmental spaces was explained. The most important types of them (including plastics, textile, metal, glass, paper, aggregates, bricks, and wood), were identified to examine their potential in further plans and designs, as well as their unique recycling features and characteristics. The research method is descriptive-comparative, and after reviewing the existing literature, this issue has been considered in Tehran as one of the largest cities. Tehran is engaging with environmental pollution caused by C&D materials, especially mixing sand and cement, concrete, bricks which account for 30%, 19%, and 18% respectively. Finally, mid-term and long-term solutions were proposed in order to create a framework for the improvement of future recycling projects, especially in the city of Tehran.