Residential Training on ‘Greening the Construction Sector – For C&D waste management and dust control’ at AAETI

The sustainable habitat team conducted a residential training session by the name of ‘Greening the Construction Sector-For C&D Waste Management and Dust Control' from February 28 to March 03, 2023, at the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI). The training was attended by 30 participants, comprising officers from government construction bodies, municipalities, academia, researchers, practitioners, etc.

On the first day, Mr. Rajneesh Sareen began the training by explaining participants about the ecosystem of construction and demolition waste management with illustrations of C&D waste flow from source to dumping sites or recycling facilities. After that, Ms. Sayani Sen presented CSE’s investigation, wherein CSE has mapped the value and trade chain of C&D waste, in informal setups for large ULBs like KMC and small urban local bodies. Post-lunch participants were introduced to a session on the environmental impact assessment of building and construction projects with a focus on the ‘air environment’ by Mr. Rajneesh Sareen. After that, Mr. Sugeet Grover took a session on government initiatives and policies for pushing alternative construction technologies into the market. The last two sessions of the day were dedicated to explaining sustainable features of the AAETI campus, followed by a walking tour that also included a C&D waste exercise that was presented on the second day of the training programme by the participants.

Day two began with a participatory exercise with the audience to determine a typical construction timeline. After that, the participants were introduced to the process of management and safeguards for material handling at the site and the city level for dust abatement. In the next session, all groups presented their exercises on the reutilization of waste material of AAETI. The post-lunch session involved the participants carrying out calculations to determine the reutilization potential of C&D waste from a demolition site by Ms. Sayani Sen. The day concluded with a visit to Tijara Fort for a pre-demolition survey, in which the participants worked in groups to conduct the documentation.

Day three began with a session on ‘resource efficiency and waste management’ which focused on the impact and mitigation of construction and development activity impact on the environment by Mr. Rajnesh Sareen. After that, Ms. Mitashi Singh took a session on case studies of C&D waste management from various urban local bodies like Delhi, Gurgaon, non-attainment cities of Rajasthan, Kolkata, Mumbai & Bhubaneswar. The next session was devoted to the technologies and processes adopted in a C&D recycling plant. The post-lunch session was a group exercise to understand the responsibilities of municipalities, pollution control boards, developers, and site engineers for proper C&D waste management and on-site dust abatement measures. After that, group presentations were done by the participants on dust and waste management at the Tijara fort reconstruction site. The day ended with the closing ceremony and awards for groups that performed the best during the training.

On the fourth day, participants were taken to the C&D waste management plant in Bakkarwala, New Delhi, for a field visit to experience the intricate procedure for C&D waste recycling techniques in practice. The plant's chief technical engineer provided information on various C&D waste processing products and materials with various specifications, including produced sands, concrete blocks, and paver blocks. He also demonstrated quality-control methodologies and processes. The day ended with a lab visit to the same C&D waste plant.