Organizers for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo said they will fulfill their environmental commitment. Construction companies will use waste materials to build foundations inside the Expo site.
Traditionally, left over pieces of brick and concrete blocks are simply shipped off to the nearest landfill site. Expo construction managers say they looked at several proposed ways to avoid such waste, but most were problematic.
Wang Zhiming, supervisor of Expo Venue Road & Infrastructure Project, said, "We had considered transporting all of the construction waste to suburban Shanghai for disposal. But that would result in several problems, including air pollution and additional fuel consumption. We would also have to transport new materials back to the construction site. "
They turned to technology from Finland to solve the problem. Huge gear wheels will be used to smash the waste into small pieces that can be mixed with a special cement with chemical additives. Builders say the new mixture will be used to build roadbeds inside the Expo site, which will cover nearly 40 kilometers.
Expo organizers had estimated that road construction projects in the venue will generate 400,000 cubic meters of construction waste. But with the introduction of new technology, all the waste can be re-used, saving construction materials and contributing to environmental protection.
(CCTV November 10, 2008)
