29 Dec 2025
Wenbo Zhao, a PhD student in the Department of Civil Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s Design School, has won the Runner-up Award for Oral Presentation at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) Doctoral Symposium, in recognition of his research on construction waste management and carbon emissions.
At the symposium, Wenbo presented a paper on construction waste management, focusing on the quantification of construction and demolition waste and the associated carbon emissions. The study is particularly significant in the context of China’s rapid economic growth and urbanisation, which have resulted in a substantial increase in construction waste and related environmental challenges.
The research enables the prediction of future demolition waste generation up to the year 2070 under different construction waste recycling scenarios and building lifespan assumptions. It first estimates the quantities of different types of demolition waste and then evaluates the corresponding carbon emissions under various recycling rate scenarios.
This study contributes to the existing literature by providing a long-term, scenario-based assessment framework for construction and demolition waste management in China. By integrating waste quantity estimation with carbon emission analysis, the research offers decision-support insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to develop more effective recycling strategies and to promote low-carbon and circular development in the construction sector.
Wenbo is under the supervision of Dr Jianli Hao, Dr Guobin Gong, and Dr Zhiqin Ni from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, as well as Dr Thomas Fischer from the University of Liverpool.
Story and images provided by Department of Civil Engineering
Edited by Yi Qian
29 Dec 2025