Municipal solid waste (MSW) requires adequate management to mitigate the negative impacts caused by its poor disposal in the environment. It is composed of several fractions, such as organic waste, paper, cardboard, metals, plastic, and glass, among other valuable materials. An area of opportunity for its recovery is the construction industry, which currently consumes around 3000 million tons of natural resources annually and is responsible for 34% of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. There are examples of the worldwide reuse of MSW in construction materials: plastics have been incorporated as substitutes for sand in the production of concrete and pavements; paper as a hygrothermal and lighting regulator in buildings; and glass has been reused as fine aggregate in concrete mixtures, among others. In this paper, we revised how these MSW fractions have been used for designing and producing sustainable construction materials, thereby favoring a circular economy approach and reducing their landfilling. Opportunity areas for these materials to be developed and applied were also identified focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean.

The increasing population and urban sprawl will continue to add significant pressure to natural resources in arid and semi-arid zones. This study evaluates the theoretical effectiveness of adapting resilient strategies such as water conservation and green infrastructure to mitigate the water scarcity faced by the inhabitants of a residential area with a semi-arid climate. Three scenarios were analyzed at a micro-basin level to determine the mitigation of surface runoff and the volume that can be theoretically intercepted for further use: (a) unaltered natural watershed (scenario 1), (b) currently urbanized watershed (scenario 2), and (c) watershed adapted with resilient strategies (scenario 3). For this last scenario, the annual usable volume of rainwater intercepted on the dwelling rooftops was obtained. The runoff and peak flow in the natural watershed were lower than in the other two scenarios. In contrast, a decrease in the runoff was observed in scenario 3 concerning scenario 2, which indicates that the interception of rainwater on house roofs and the adoption of green infrastructure solutions would significantly reduce the diameter of urban drainage pipes required in new developments, as well as the dependency of inhabitants on potable water services. In sites with semi-arid climates, it is possible to take advantage of the rainwater harvested on rooftops and the runoff intercepted through green infrastructure to mitigate local water scarcity problems, which should be considered and adopted in new residential developments.

This paper deals with the design of a bioretention cell and an infiltration trench in a semi- arid micro watershed. The study area was analyzed by characteristics such as slope changes (S), direction and maximum length of the urban runoff (L), and soil use (runoff coefficient, R_c). The bioretention cell was designed by the calculation of variables such as drainage area (A), concentration time (T_c), rainfall intensity (i), maximum peak drained (Q_max), inlet and outlet runoff (Q_a and Q_out, respectively), temperature (T), evaporation (Ev), potential evapotranspiration (PE_m), consumptive use (U) for tolerant plants to semi-arid climates, and soil infiltration capacity (Inf). To design the infiltration trench, only T_c, Q_max, and i were taken into account. The results showed that the designed bioretention cell could retain between 5.37% and 2.25% of runoff volume. As the efficiency of the bioretention cell can be defined by the need for additional irrigation, our results showed that the cell is inefficient in some of the dry months (November and December), even in years characterized by abundant rainfall. Besides, it was shown that the designed infiltration trench could store or infiltrate the water from typical rain events. Based on these results, it is the implementation of more Low-Impact Development (LID) for runoff management in the study area is recommended.

In cities with problems of aridity and a shortage of drinking water supply, there is an urgent need to establish alternatives for an adequate water management program. This study proposes an estimation through which users can select a rainwater harvesting system for non-drinking water consumption. For the cities of Pachuca and Mineral de la Reforma, State of Hidalgo, Central Mexico, the historical record of rainfall analyzed covers a period of 33 years (1980–2013). We calculated the monthly volume of rainwater harvestable from roof areas (VR, m³) with household roof areas (Hra) of 45 m², 50 m², 100 m² and 200 m². It is proposed to replace in each single house the flush toilets and washing machine with ecological devices with consumptions of 4.8 L/flush and 70 L/load, respectively. Furthermore, a maximum and a minimum consumption of eight and six flushes/day/person (flush toilets) and five and four loads/week (washing machine), respectively, are proposed. From these considerations, our estimations of the harvestable rainwater showed that households with Hra of 45 m² and 50 m² would depend on the water supply system of the public network during part of the year. On the other hand, households with Hra of 100 m² and 200 m² might be able to store enough water to meet other needs besides toilet flushing and laundry.