Serious waste of building materials

Leading Speech: Ningbo blasted two high-rise buildings in the early morning of March 30th to build rail transit for the city to make way for the road. This led to the controversy over the "short-lived construction" unique to China. Qiu Baoxing, deputy minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, once stated that China is the country with the largest amount of new construction every year in the world, with an area of ​​2 billion square meters built a year. The average life expectancy of buildings can only be maintained for 25 to 30 years. In fact, many buildings in China are not dismantled because of quality problems, and business interests and GDP worship are not discussed. More problems are also caused by irrational, unscientific, and unsustainable urban planning.

I. Short-term Views of Chinese Architecture The so-called “short-lived buildings” refer to buildings that have been demolished for a variety of reasons without reaching the design lifespan. According to the “General Principles of Civil Building Design” of the State, the durability of the main structures of important buildings and high-rise buildings is 100 years, and that of general buildings is 50 to 100 years. However, in recent years, many buildings that have been demolished in China's urban and rural areas have been significantly lower than their design years. Qiu Baoxing, deputy director of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, once stated that China's urban construction life can only last for an average of 25 to 30 years. Looking through recent news reports, it is not difficult to list a long list of "death lists" for buildings. In addition to those landmark buildings that attract attention, there are a large number of ordinary houses that were demolished in advance for various reasons after they were completed. Compared to China's average construction life of 30 years, the average life expectancy in the United Kingdom reached 132 years, and the building life in France and the United States also reached 102 years and 74 years, respectively. From the “death modes” of many buildings, blind land development, chaotic urban planning, and poor house quality are the three main reasons for the short-lived construction. This does not include temporary buildings that are specially built for the Expo.

Second, short-lived buildings: energy consumption financial statistics, in 2002 the country's total urban demolition of 120 million square meters of housing, equivalent to the completion of that year's commercial housing area of ​​320 million square meters of 37.5%; 2003, a total of 161 million square meters of urban housing demolition, The year-on-year increase of 34.2% was equivalent to 41.3% of the 390 million square meters of completed commercial housing. This large-scale construction and demolition work, at the expense of a large amount of social resources, interacted with the rapid expansion of fixed assets, and drove the rapid rise of local real estate prices.

A building that consumes 40% of the world's cement and steel and only has a lifespan of less than 30 years. In this "demolition, construction and demolition" campaign, China has created two world firsts - it consumes global The largest amount of cement and steel also produces the largest amount of construction waste in the world. "Short-lived" and high consumption of resources co-exist, has become a common problem in China's construction industry. China is the country with the largest amount of new construction each year in the world. The newly built area of ​​2 billion square meters is equivalent to 40% of the world's cement and steel consumption, but it can only last 25 to 30 years.

Thousands of billions of building materials are removed each year. In 2003, a total of 161 million square meters of houses were demolished in China's cities and towns, and 200,000 kilograms of cement and 60 kilograms of steel were required for each square meter. A total of 32.2 million tons of cement and 9.66 million tons of steel were wasted. Both accounted for 8.9% of the steel and cement needed for the completion of the country's housing in 2003; if calculated at 300 yuan per ton of cement and 4,000 yuan per ton of steel, only cement and steel used in construction would have lost 48.3 billion yuan; 1 ton of cement consumes 145 kg of raw coal, and 1 ton of steel consumes 741 kg of raw coal. A total of 11.83 million tons of raw coal is wasted.

The demolition of houses generates a large amount of construction waste, which can reach 400 million tons per year. While excessively consuming resources such as cement, steel, and coal, a large number of repetitive “short-lived buildings” also create a large amount of construction waste. According to the research report provided by Zhang Tanxian, member of the National Building Identification and Reinforcement Standards Technical Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Secretary of the Shanghai Branch, the rough material loss of construction materials for brick-concrete structures, cast-in-place structures, and frame structures According to statistics, construction waste will generate 500 to 600 tons of construction waste per 10,000 square meters of construction, and 7,000 to 12,000 tons of construction waste will be produced in 10,000 square meters of demolished old buildings. The amount of construction waste in China has accounted for 30% to 40% of the total amount of urban waste, generating 400 million tons of new construction waste each year. The transportation, handling and storage of these wastes will have an impact on the local environment.