Steps and measures of construction and demolition waste management in natural disasters

Disasters have caused 1. 2 million fatalities and 1. 7 trillion damages (USD) in the world during 2000-2012. Depending on the nature and severity، disasters can generate large volumes of debris and waste. Values of between 30 and 113 t/household can be used to estimate the amount of debris of a damaged house and building. The waste can overwhelm existing solid waste management facilities and also impact on other emergency response and recovery activities. Thus، management of construction and demolition (C&D) wastes is one of the most important action should be done. Disaster waste management actions include three major phases as follow: 1) Emergency phase، 2) preliminary recovery phase، and 3) final recovery phase. In this article، technical options of disaster waste management have been studied such as: estimation methods of C&D waste amounts، planning and management need in emergency، temporary storage in transfer stations، disposal، reuse and recycling of the wastes، prioritization of actions. Studies show that many types of C&D waste، such as bricks، blocks، concrete، asphalt، plasterboard، tiles، and iron sheets، can be recycled or reused for different application including: landfill waste cover، concrete aggregate، building and road base material، production of cement، soil drainage improvement، ingredient/additive in the production of fertilizer and compost