Awareness of using Plastic Brick in Brunei Construction Industry

Abstract

Plastics form a considerable part of wastes, which are not managed properly, but create many environmental and health problems. A part of such wastes can be used as plastic bricks, to offer effective management of plastic wastes, and reduced emissions, materials and energy cost. A questionnaire survey assessed awareness of Brunei construction industry through 73 responses using 13 relevant key benefits. The Cronbach’s Alpha suggested the reliability of the observed sample. Statistical t-tests confirmed that all the benefits are statistically significant, and of high general importance. Despite different priority of various groups of respondents, ANOVA results showed that they broadly agreed on the priority of importance of various factors. Such results were interpreted to have some good awareness of Brunei construction industry on using plastic bricks. Factor analysis extracted three interrelated components, suggesting a consolidated and holistic approach for wider adoption of plastic bricks in construction. The next step is to undertake further research of identifying and assessing large scale benefits, problems/challenges and relevant strategies for wider adoption of plastic bricks, and using larger sample size.