Budding civil engineers were on Friday told to give importance to use construction and demolition (C and D) waste for non-structural works to check pollution.
At the national seminar on 'Recent advances in eco-friendly materials for enhancing pavement sustainability' organised by Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, experts in the field of civil engineering spoke about the technological interventions that have helped the cities to deal with the C and D waste.
They stressed the need to reuse such materials in the face of declining natural resources, especially sand.
The construction waste can play a major role in laying of pavements in cities, said Bharathi Ganesh, a professor from Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology.
She said demolition contributes to 48% of the C and D waste, followed by 44% from repair and renovation works as new construction accounts for 8% of such material.
"In Delhi, all government agencies have been told to use 10% of products from the recycling of C and D waste in road works and 5% in non-structural applications. Similar rules should be applied in all cities," she said.
Uday Kumar L of SUR Engineering called upon the students to focus on to integrate environmental concerns with civil engineering.
“More research needs to be done for better use of C and D waste, especially in the field of on-site recycling of bituminous pavement on national highways. The future of civil engineering depends on efficient recycling, and youngsters have a major role to play,” he said.