C&D waste management during urban transformation process

There are various studies about the urban transformation process, which are directly or indirectly affect almost everyone living in Turkey. When current studies are examined, it is seen that generally studies are concentrated on the issues related to urban transformation process itself or the stakeholders in the process. Although construction and demolition wastes are not the first thing to come to mind in the context of urban transformation, however the inability to proper waste management, has affected the daily life and health of the public, and it has led to the need for conduct research in this topic. In the first chapter of the thesis; purpose and scope are determined. In the second chapter, legal structures and practices in other countries have been mentioned in order to understand the general concept of construction and demolition waste management. It is seen that the majority of the European Union countries have achieved the 70% recovery goal of the construction and demolition waste. Some countries like Finland and Poland are still under the target. The Netherlands and Germany have surpassed the 70% target and they have set additional targets for themselves. They have set new legal basis for the sustainability of their success. Hong Kong is one of the successful countries for the management of construction and demolition wastes. Thanks to the concept of public filling areas which is established by Hong Kong, they not only recycles construction and wasted wastes but also enlarges their area by filling their shore. Recently it is understood that planning the management of construction and demolition waste as a final step, is not a sufficient solution. Hence there has been emerged new approaches, such as circular economy and green building certifications. In the third chapter of the thesis, the legal structure for the management of construction and demolition wastes in Turkey and the current waste management are given. The most comprehensive legal basis, for regulating existing practices, is the Excavation Soil, Construction and Demolition Waste Control Regulation. Regulation set rules for all processes between the generation and the disposal of the C&D wastes. The waste producer, transporter, disposer and municipalities are responsible for management of C&D wastes. One of the most important issues in the regulation is the separation of vegetative soil, from excavation soil and other C&D wastes. 2 cm vegetal soil formation is take almost 500 years, so there are special rule in regulation for management of vegetative soil. Informations like the amount of generated C&D waste, penalties and disposal area are learned from the annual reports published by the municipalities and from the authorities during the visits conducted within the scope of the thesis. After the separable wastes are removed, the remaining excavated soil and C&D wastes should be disposal. C&D wastes can sent to 3th class landfills, but generally old mining areas are chosen as a disposal area for C&D wastes. The C&D waste in Istanbul has increased significantly especially since 2012. It is estimated that this situation is due to the increasing construction activities along with the urban transformation process. In the fourth chapter, the other important title of the thesis, "urban transformation" is examined. The history of the urban transformation concept is investigated and examples are given from the world. When examining other examples of the urban transformation process, it is observed that each of them entered the process due to different reasons. Sometimes the economic reasons are pioneer for urban transformation and sometimes the events that affect the region such as the war or environmental, social and economical conditions make the transformation process mandatory. In the fifth chapter, historical trends of the urban transformation process in Turkey are investigated and examples from the current situation are given. Firstly legal basis is stated and data about existing applications are obtained. Since urban transformation is broad project which is covering all of the country, more local examples of the subject have been tried to be given. Since the number of living people constitutes about 20% of the country, it has been decided that Istanbul will be a representative example for the urban transformation process. The districts in the urban transformation the process of are determined. In the sixth chapter, waste management during the urban transformation process is explained. Turkey has been trying to improve the waste management profile but there is still not enough data in many cities. İstanbul district municipalities and sector authorities have been interviewed in order to understand how much amount of waste is generated and how the recycling activities are in progress. Two different methods are applied to guess future waste generation in the process. According to calculations at the end of the process 500 million C&D waste will be produced in Istanbul. In the seventh chapter, conclusions and evaluations were made about the thesis topic.It is known that urban transformation process is aimed to transforming around 7.5-8 million buildings. When it is considered only 1 million of them were transformed, it is not too late to improve the waste management practicies for C&D wastes. One of the major obstacles standing front of better waste management in Turkey is backwardness in academic research area. Most popular research topics in C&D waste management are; waste generation, waste reduction, reuse of waste and recovery of waste. When academic papers of C&D waste topic are analysed by the countries; Hong Kong contributes about 25-30%, United States contributes 12-14%, Australia's contributes 8-9% , United Kingdom contributes 7-8%, China and Turkey have 4% - 0.5-0.6% ratios respectively. It is seen that the number of academic publications and the success of C & D waste management are directly proportional. Another issue that is directly related to the success in waste management is C & D waste disposal fees. Currently, the disposal of wastes usually takes place in old mining areas. The fields that allowed to accept C&D wastes are filled up in 1-1.5 years. When the increasement in C&D waste amount and lack of places for final disposal problems are examined, 3R policy for C&D waste in Turkey is not an option it is an obligation.