Life Cycle Assessment Of Material Waste Generation From Building Construction Projects In Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Studies recognized that construction waste constitutes about 30-40% of the overall solid waste deposited at the landfill sites worldwide, and to have impact on our personal lives and the entire world around us. This research studied building life cycle and waste generation by building projects in southwest Nigeria by the use of structured questionnaire applied to representatives of professionally registered firms of the Nigerian construction industry in the region. A total of four hundred and three (403) questionnaires were randomly administered to the professionally registered firms within the study area, out of which only two hundred and sixty-one (261) of those returned were considered valid and usable. The retrieved data was profiled and rank using the 5 points Likert scale. The study found that post-construction stage activities had the greatest affinity for material waste generation with the highest mean score of 3.5172 and followed by the construction stage activities with the mean score of 3.0672 indicating that waste generation at this stage is moderate. Based on this, the study concludes that there is a need to develop incentives that will encourage the industry professionals to imbibe waste prevention and minimization strategies that will help limit waste generation by the different building life cycle stages.