The Recycling of Construction and Demolition Waste from a Circular Economy Perspective

Compared to the traditional linear economic model of the construction industry, the adoption of the circular economy model has led to a shift in the flow of materials within the construction industry, thus offering greater potential for waste reduction and resource recycling in the construction industry, and has attracted the attention of researchers both nationally and internationally. This paper aims to explore the application of circular economy in the construction industry. Firstly, by analyzing the circular mechanism of construction and demolition (C&D) waste throughout the project life cycle and in the recycling market, to derive a practical perspective for achieving a circular economy. Secondly, a circular framework of C&D waste is constructed. Under the background of effective strategies of government departments, project design and construction recycling market are the supports to realizing circular economy of the construction industry. Finally, under the perspective of achieving circular economy efficiency, eight indicators for assessing the circular economy benefits of the construction industry are derived based on the input and output mechanism of C&D waste in the circular framework.