2.2.3. Virtual Abatement Costs of Solid Waste

The solid waste produced in the building life cycle is composed of building solid waste and household waste.

• Building solid waste

The recycle rate of building material in China is considerable low. Most of building solid waste is simply treated by depositing or burying in the suburb, which will cause severe environmental pollution during transportation and deposition [31]. The abatement costs of building solid waste can be calculated as follows:

$$\mathcal{L}\_{\text{ru31}} = Q\_{\text{31}} \times \mathcal{c}\_{\text{ru31}} \tag{3}$$

where *Cva*<sup>31</sup> is the virtual abatement costs of building solid waste; *Q*<sup>31</sup> is the total amount of building solid waste; *cva*<sup>31</sup> is the virtual abatement cost per unit building solid waste. According to the results of pollution loss survey data and System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) of pilot provinces, the general industrial solid waste per unit virtual management cost is 22 CNY/t [5].

• Household waste

With the development of China's urbanization, most of household waste is disposed after harmless treatment, instead of directly drained off into the natural environment. The definition of harmless disposal is when advanced technology and scientific technology are used in the treatment of municipal solid waste to reduce the environmental impact of solid waste [32]. There are mainly three kinds of garbage harmless treatments: landfill, compost and incineration.

With the promotion of household waste treatment technology, some cities have achieved 100% harmless treatment. In this study, it is assumed that no harm will be caused by household waste after harmless treatment, and the environmental degradation costs can be ignored. The virtual abatement costs of household waste can be calculated as:

$$\mathcal{L}\_{\text{ru32}} = Q\_{32} \times c\_{\text{va32}} + \sum\_{k=1}^{n} Q\_k \times c\_{\text{vak}} \tag{4}$$

where *Cva*<sup>32</sup> is the virtual abatement costs of household waste; *Q*<sup>32</sup> is the total amount of household waste; *cva*<sup>32</sup> is the transportation costs of household waste; *Qk* is the amount of household waste treated by different technologies; *cvak* is the unit virtual abatement costs of each treatment (shown in Table 6).

**Table 6.** Unit virtual abatement cost of household waste.


By summing up *Cva*1, *Cva*<sup>2</sup> and *Cva3,* the total virtual abatement costs of building can be calculated as follows:

$$\mathbf{C}\_{\rm ru} = \mathbf{C}\_{\rm ru1} + \mathbf{C}\_{\rm ru2} + \mathbf{C}\_{\rm ru31} + \mathbf{C}\_{\rm ru32} \tag{5}$$
