Construction Waste Material Cross Jurisdictional Trading: A PESTEL Framework of the Greater Bay Area in China

Abstract

Construction waste, as a by-product of construction activities, has raised great concern worldwide due to its adverse effects on the environment. Extensive studies have been conducted to devise various strategies to improve the construction waste management performance. Various measures guided by the 3R principles have been proposed in the last few decades, which has indeed relieved the construction waste issues. However, with the increasingly severe construction waste issues in the predictable future, it is also highly necessary to have other innovative strategies in addition to the 3R principles as handling construction waste issues is a systematic project. Amid all the strategies, the management of inert portion, termed as construction waste material (CWM), occupying the predominant volume in the total construction waste has received increasing concerns. Now, a promising solution is to boost the CWM cross jurisdictional trade, which very few studies have been conducted. However, the de facto extent of this trade is still too modest and the barriers against it are still yet to be known. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the research gap by investigating the potential barriers to CWM trading through adoption of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) framework with a case study of Greater Bay Area (GBA) in China. It is discovered that insufficient political and economic incentives, weak public consciousness, lack of labelling of compliant materials, asymmetric information, and imperfect legal system have hindered the development of CWM trading. Through the case study of GBA, some significant hints and references can be obtained for GBA and beyond to devise more targeted strategic framework to boost the CWM cross jurisdictional trade so that CWM issues can be generally relieved if not fully eliminated. The research deliverables are of benefit for various jurisdictions to relieve the long-lasting construction waste issues.