An empirical study of perceptions towards construction and demolition waste recycling and reuse in China

•This study adopted a holistic approach in investigating China's C&D waste diversion.•China's waste management practice was compared with selected developed countries.•Governmental supervision had a high impact on China's C&D waste management.•Lack of client demands was a major barrier in practicing C&D waste diversion.•Perceptions on C&D waste diversion were tested among subgroups in the survey sample.

This study was designed to investigate the recent movement and current stage of China's construction and demolition (C&D) waste recycling and reuse. Specifically, the research aimed to provide the big picture of recent C&D waste diversion practice in China, as well as to offer insights from Chinese field practitioners' perceptions towards benefits, challenges, and recommendations of C&D recycling and reuse. This research was conducted based on a review of existing practice and a holistic approach by collecting feedback of professionals from multiple disciplines through a questionnaire-based survey. Totally 77 valid responses were received from 592 questionnaires sent. Both quantitative data and qualitative information implied that China was still at the early stage of recycling C&D wastes. Lack of client demands was identified as one of the main difficulties in C&D waste diversion. The study revealed that engineers and consultants had a more positive perception on promoting industrial training in C&D waste recycling, while construction management professionals held more conservative opinion on it. It was also found that gaining experience in C&D waste recycling and reuse would offer professionals more positive perception on the quality of products containing recycled contents. It was further implied that although governmental supervision had a high impact on China's current C&D waste management practice, the economic viability should eventually dominate the C&D waste diversion.