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Lookup NU author(s): Napaporn Tangtinthai, Professor Oliver Heidrich, Professor David ManningORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
© 2019 Rapid urbanisation, with associated housing and infrastructure demands, leads to increased mining and use of non-renewable mineral raw materials needed for the construction industry including concrete and cement. In an emerging economy, like Thailand, which is part of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), current environmental management policies are insufficient to reduce raw material requirements or waste from demolition by generating inputs to construction through reuse or recycling. As part of the European Union (EU), Great Britain has successfully implemented integrated policies and achieved high rates of recycled aggregates in construction (29%) and a 70% reuse and recycling target for construction and demolition (C&D) waste. In this paper, Material Flow Analysis (MFA) of cement/concrete materials is combined with an interpretation of related policies to provide a deeper understanding how to achieve more sustainable management of natural resources. A comparative MFA for the construction industry in Great Britain and Thailand (representing an ASEAN country) has been developed that quantifies raw material inputs, buildings and infrastructure outputs, so that the practices in the two countries can be contrasted. We report domestic cement production and import/export data, and calculate the raw materials needed for cement and its calcination process for concrete production. Considering the most relevant policies and taxation in Great Britain, we identify possible ways forward for Thailand by introducing new policies and taxation that will have positive effects on raw material extraction, processing, construction and disposal practices and disposal behaviors. Following the MFA and policy analysis, we believe that similar benefits apply to other emerging economies.
Author(s): Tangtinthai N, Heidrich O, Manning DAC
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Environmental Management
Year: 2019
Volume: 236
Pages: 613-621
Print publication date: 15/04/2019
Online publication date: 14/02/2019
Acceptance date: 30/11/2018
Date deposited: 04/03/2019
ISSN (print): 0301-4797
ISSN (electronic): 1095-8630
Publisher: Academic Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.141
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.141
Data Access Statement: https://doi.org/10.17634/121736-5
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