China's guidance on reducing construction waste (建质〔2020〕46号) set a target that by the end of 2025 new-build sites should keep construction waste below 300 tonnes per 10,000 m² of floor area, and prefabricated building sites below 200 tonnes. The same document asks project parties to adopt green planning, green design and advanced construction methods.
Waste from partitions is of two kinds. Demolition and cutting waste — offcuts, broken blocks, mortar residue, packaging — and rework waste, which is what gets thrown away because something was built wrong or changed. A dry system with a cut list addresses both: boards arrive cut to size, so offcuts are factory offcuts that go back into production; and clip-in boards can be taken down and reused when a layout changes instead of being smashed out.
The mortar component matters more than it looks. Mortar is delivered as powder, mixed with water on site, and whatever is mixed but not used within its working life is waste. On a large block partition the leftover mortar, the half-used bags and the washing water are a steady stream that nobody records.
The reporting consequence is practical: waste figures are increasingly required at handover, and the difference between a wet and a dry partition can be the difference between meeting the target and paying for disposal. It is worth checking the project's waste target before the partition method is fixed, not after.