Construction Waste Management Practices Research Articles

Paving a traceable green pathway towards sustainable construction: A fuzzy ISM-DEMATEL analysis of blockchain technology adoption barriers in construction waste management

Construction waste management (CWM) and blockchain technology (BT) are two crucial topics for sustainable production and development. As a fundamental infrastructure for artificial intelligence, BT enables real-time, reciprocal, and immutable information provision in tracing construction waste and holds a significant potential to advance CWM. However, the barriers to adopting BT in CWM and their impact on CWM practices remain unclear. Therefore, this study aims to identify BT adoption barriers in CWM, assess their criticality, and clarify their correlations through a fuzzy empirical analysis. Results show that, due to interdependence, actions on one or some of the barriers can have a closed-loop impact. The findings suggest that the government and the stakeholders have a critical influence on the further adoption of BT in CWM. This exploratory study advances sustainable construction by clarifying those BT adoption barriers and providing implications to integrate BT into CWM practices.

An environmental management plan for construction waste management

This study presents a proposed environmental management plan (EMP) for construction waste management (CWM). This life cycle thinking (LCT)- based EMP for CWM is set to constitute three sections. The former investigates means of waste minimization via source control strategies. The second section discusses CWM by monitoring and tracking the path of input building materials and output construction waste. The final section presents an input–output quantitative assessment of the CWM strategies undertaken. The proposed LCT-based EMP defines actions and activities for different phases and pinpoints the methods and procedures across the entire building process. Finally, it is applied to two groups of case studies showing the difference between CWM practices for green-certified and non-certified projects. The outcome shows how the proposed plan can present a novel approach integrating environmental management and best practices for CWM. This shall facilitate complying with international standards and building rating systems for achieving environmental stewardship.

CONSTRUCTION WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

This article evaluated the knowledge of Construction Waste Management (CWM) among contractors in Gqeberha and establish what legislative shortcomings were there in terms of CWM regulations. The reduction in landfilling could decrease the waste management cost for construction companies, and reduce negative impacts on the environment. This article used a qualitative design approach. The primary data was obtained through structured interviews from a selected number of main contractors in Gqeberha. The study focused on on-site agents, contracts managers, and Health Safety and Envronment officers through a nonprobability sampling technique. The study reveled that the lack of government legislation, to discourage the landfilling of waste, was the main catalyst. The primary data also stated that the lack of recycling facilities also contributed to the abundance of landfilling waste among contractors in Gqeberha. The research findings also showed that contractors in Gqeberha were knowledgeable on several construction waste management strategies. Future research will require contractors to research the potential economic benefits of CWM, as well as minimisation and recovery CWM strategies, and the local municipality to explore methods of discouraging landfilling waste, within the construction industry and in other sectors, as well as the economic and environmental benefits of CWM. The article provided insight concerning the CW and CWM practices among contractors in Gqeberha, including identifying the interventions required to address shortcomings.

Assessment of Construction Waste Management Practice in Mekelle, northern Ethiopia: Challenges and Opportunities

The rapid economic growth and urbanization in Ethiopia have led to extensive construction activities in major cities. Construction activities have known to generate large quantities of wastes that pose serious environmental problems. This paper presents the challenges of construction waste management practices in Mekelle city and explores appropriate measures to address the issues in a more sustainable way. Field observation, questionnaire survey, interviewing of public sector officials at different levels was conducted to identify the source and management options of construction waste in the city. The findings showed that the majority of survey participants felt that their firms have taken various measures to manage construction waste. It was revealed that 40% of the respondents exercise illegal dumping as a common method of waste management, which is closely followed by reuse and recycling. It is evident that over 75% of the construction- generated has potential for recycling and reuse as backfilling and base for roads and buildings. The increase in the number of illegal dumping sites in the city represents the failure to properly control and implement effective construction waste management. It was suggested that sustainable solution for construction waste management at local level depends on increasing awareness and promoting reusing and recycling of construction waste.

Strategies for Effective Waste Reduction and Management of Building Construction Projects in Highly Urbanized Cities—A Case Study of Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a densely populated city with high-rise developments, and as in other metropolitan cities, the amount of waste generated from construction projects in the city is increasing annually. The capacity of existing landfills is expected to be saturated by the 2020s. Construction waste management has been implemented for years but the performance is still not satisfactory. The aim of this research paper is to explore and formulate strategies and measures for effective construction waste management and reduction in highly urbanized cities such as Hong Kong. A desktop study on construction waste management practices was carried out for a preliminary understanding of the current situation in Hong Kong. Semistructured interviews and focus group meetings were further conducted to shed light on how to improve construction waste reduction and management in Hong Kong. The main contributions of this research study are the potential short-term, medium-term, and long-term strategies, which are related to the design stage, tender stage, construction stage, and government support. The five major strategies recommended are financial benefits to stakeholders, public policies in facilitating waste sorting, government supports for the green building industry, development of a mature recycling market, and education and research in construction waste minimization and management.

An analytical framework of “zero waste construction site”: Two case studies of Shenzhen, China

Around the global construction industry, there is an emerging trend to pursue a “zero-waste” goal at the site level, but little is known about it. This paper aims to shed insights on the waste management concept of “zero waste construction site” by delineating its meaning, system boundary, assessment period, and operation strategies, which are further formulated in an analytical framework. Owing to the nascent nature of the concept, we adopted a qualitative approach including archival study, a series of semi-structured interviews, and two in-depth case studies in Shenzhen, China to sketch the analytical framework. Meanwhile, an analogy between “zero waste construction site” and “net zero building” is continuously made to fine-tune and finalize the framework. This research demonstrates that the zero-waste goal is challenging but achievable on individual construction sites. The system boundary to examine the zero-waste goal is contingent on the project scope, be it a new construction, renovation, or demolition project. The assessment period is dependent on the duration of the construction project. However, it would be too costly, if not entirely impossible, to achieve a “zero waste construction site” by treating it as a closed system. Rather, one needs to consider open, off-site strategies, e.g., engaging third-party recycling services, reusing recycled materials in subsequent projects, or trading it in to a recycled material market. The analytical framework can be utilized to scrutinize existing construction waste management practices. In the long term, the research will contribute positively to a “zero waste” society.

Construction waste management practices on-sites: A case study of Istanbul city

Increasing construction activities put enormous stress on waste generation in Turkey. Therefore, to manage all these construction wastes by setting effective waste management strategies becomes more significant day by day. Although there is a rising interest in waste management issues, there are not enough studies in Turkey. The lack of data is a prominent obstacle for the researchers. Addressing this research gap, an explanatory multiple-case study was conducted to reveal the waste management practices (waste generation, collection-sorting, storage-disposal, and recovery) on-sites. Unstructured interviews were conducted with different 13 experts working at different construction sites in Istanbul. According to the qualitative study results, there is usually no waste management plan on-sites. Project revisions and cutting of materials for sizing, storage problems are the most emphasized causes of waste on-sites. Wastes are mostly collected and disposed of by the contractors and there is a tendency to collect wastes in mixed on-site and later partly sort. Collection-sorting and storage-disposal practices on-sites are affected by the quantity of waste, site facilities, storage opportunities, scale of the contractor and economic value of waste. The recovery facilities are mostly depending on the economic gain to be obtained from waste. In this context, the recycling and reusing of steel waste is given the best importance. There are not enough networks for recovery of cardboard/paper-plastic wastes on-sites. There is no illegal dumping among the cases included in this study. However, awareness on special treatment of hazardous wastes has not yet been developed enough on-sites in Turkey.

Man-made Disaster Prevention using Waste Management Hierarchy and Disaster Management Cycle

The amount of construction waste generated is enormous due to the growth of the construction activities, which might lead to serious environmental problems. This is also including the construction waste that was generated from the natural disaster. This potential human-made disaster has been receiving worldwide attention and becomes a significant concern across nations. Thus, many studies on the effectiveness of construction waste management practices have been done. However, statistics do not show any improvement in the number of construction waste production. This paper aims to investigate the state of the art of construction waste management practice in Malaysia and the human-made disaster management strategies that feasible to be applied. Data were collected using the semi-structured interview with the key informants of the construction professional service providers in Malaysia and analyzed through thematic content analysis. An in-depth conceptualization and a new theoretical insight are developed on the strategy to prevent this human-made disaster caused by the construction waste. Findings from the cross-sectional content analysis and cognitive mapping propose a new human-made disaster management strategy in the construction caused by the construction waste that suits to Malaysian context.

Managing Construction Waste in Developed Countries: Lessons Learned for Indonesia

Many construction practitioners in developed countries are already aware of reducing and managing construction waste. In Indonesia, it has not yet become a primary concern. Typically, the priority still focuses on how to win competitions instead and finish them on time with some profits. Whereas, the volume of waste in the world continues to grow day by day. The aim of this study is to explore best practices of construction waste management in developed countries to be implemented in Indonesia. The objectives are; (1) to examine the implementation of waste management in construction projects in developed countries and (2) to identify context, drivers and barriers of the construction waste management practices. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to address these aim and objectives. The results show that in general, many developed countries can reduce and manage their construction waste with supports from stakeholders, the availability of regulation with strong sanctions, law enforcement from the government, another supporting system, and high awareness from the practitioners. Although each country arguably may have best practices due to the local context, nevertheless these results may give insight and are useful for stakeholders in the Indonesia construction industry.

BIM-based automated construction waste estimation algorithms: The case of concrete and drywall waste streams

Globally, the growth of construction activities over the past years has resulted in large quantities of waste generation. Much of this waste is not reused or recycled and is subsequently redirected to landfills. The environmental impact of construction waste (CW) generation and the shortage of land resources for the creation of new landfills have reinforced the need to adopt more innovative CW management practices. Estimation of CW is a necessary step for the adoption of CW management practices. In this study, Building Information Modeling (BIM) is used to automate CW quantification. In this context, CW generation is estimated as the materials purchased but not incorporated into the actual building structure. Algorithms developed to quantify concrete and drywall waste streams are presented to demonstrate the proposed CW estimation method. The proposed concrete algorithm is validated by comparing estimated waste to actual waste data reported in the waste hauling tickets of a real-world project. Furthermore, CW generation quantities reported in the literature are used to validate estimates of both concrete and drywall waste streams. By leveraging material quantities directly from BIM—as opposed to manual estimations—CW estimation can be streamlined, enabling decision makers to implement more efficient construction waste management practices in the field.

Construction waste generation estimates of institutional building projects: Leveraging waste hauling tickets

The large proportions of waste generated from the construction industry have led to adverse environmental and socio-economic impacts, and as such, there is a need to promote construction waste management (CWM) practices. However, there is limited information regarding construction waste (CW) generated from nonresidential buildings available to support such CWM practices. This study seeks to quantify CW generated from a nonresidential institutional building project using CW data collected from 535 waste hauling tickets. These tickets provide a waste generation summary itemized by various CW streams. The CW data was collected through coordination with the project waste management team. Findings reveal that concrete/masonry is the highest waste stream during the Foundation (46% of CW) and Structural Concrete (88% of CW) stages. During the Masonry Work and Finishing Stage, wood is found to be the primary contributor (54% of CW), followed by concrete/masonry (35.3% of CW). The estimated CW generation rate was approximately 69 kg/m2, with the concrete/masonry and wood waste streams having the highest generation rates of 33.61 kg/m2 and 28.21 kg/m2, respectively, comprising 90% of the total CW across the project. Due to the temporal characteristics of different waste streams, varying CW dumpsters available onsite is recommended based on the construction stage, to mitigate space shortage impacts. Furthermore, this study quantifies the benefits of recycling CW as environmental savings of trees, water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions. Findings of this study would help refine the accuracy of the reported estimates of CW generation for nonresidential construction projects. By shedding light on the corresponding handling practices of the generated waste and project management processes applied on institutional projects, the study can also serve as a guide to better plan for and coordinate the management of CW of these projects. Results may be used to promote and encourage the adoption of CWM practices at the site level to improve the sustainability performance of the construction industry.

A Case Study of Sustainable Construction Waste Management in Saudi Arabia

The Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) consistently rank among the top 10% of per capita waste producers in the world. Collectively around 120 million tons of waste is produced annually in GCC; 55% construction and demolition (C&D) waste, 20% municipal solid waste (MSW), 18% industrial waste, and 7% hazardous waste. Like other GCC nations, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) generates massive amounts of MSW, C&D waste, and industrial waste. This study aims to examine 81 construction companies in the Eastern Province of KSA to determine which factors critically affect the sustainable management of C&D waste in the country. Only 39.5% of the companies studied had a pollution control plan for their projects. It was also found that only 13.6% of C&D waste is recycled and reused every year, whereas the remaining 86.4% C&D waste eventually goes to the landfills. Most of the C&D waste in the country is a promising source of potential recyclable construction materials such as gravel from debris, metals, and sand. This would not only fulfill the requirements of gravel and metal production of the KSA but also solve the waste disposal issues along with generating huge economic benefits. However, to accomplish the goal of sustainable construction waste management, it is critical to underline the various factors that might impact the construction waste management practices in the country.

Construction Waste Reduction Through BIM-Based Site Management Approach

Today, construction practices with potential damages to the environment are carried out uncontrollably to respond to rapidly growing population needs. In the construction sector, which is one of the leading sectors closely following technological developments, steps must be taken to protect the world's ecologic balance. The goal of the professionals is not only to put up a building in accordance with its design but also to comply with environmental requirements in a respectful way. Different parameters such as erroneous design decisions, inadequate work schedules, sudden weather oppositions, defects in product supply can affect directly or indirectly the construction process, resulting in the generation of construction waste on the construction site. These wastes negatively affect the living and non-living environment. It is not technically possible to completely eliminate construction wastes generated during the construction process, but it is possible to control and recover these wastes. For this reason, innovative applications are important in the construction sector. This study examines the potential of BIM applications in preventing/reducing wastes in the construction process. For this purpose; articles that talk about the reasons of waste generation in the construction sector and the relationship between BIM technology and construction waste management practices were examined, and the findings obtained were evaluated. BIM applications have been proposed to be developed to prevent/reduce wastes on the construction site.

A review of construction waste management practices on selected case studies in Ireland

To date, the construction and demolition waste research in Ireland has focused on end-of-pipe solutions by investigating the development of processing infrastructure, the generation of waste production indicators and the evaluation of different audit methodologies. This paper takes a more novel approach by examining the implementation of waste reduction strategies during the design and construction phases of two selected case studies, through a close collaboration with the industry (Scott Tallon Walker Architects and John Sisk and Son Building Contractors). These original findings suggest that both the design and construction phases do offer significant waste reduction opportunities through the reuse of existing sites, minimisation of excavation works where possible, preparation of site waste management and subcontractor waste minimisation plans, setting of waste targets, application of design ‘freezes’ where appropriate, use of low waste technologies, use of materials optimisation in selected work packages, the use of off-site construction techniques, use of a mini-skip distribution network and source segregation and through the reuse of waste materials on site where possible.

Barriers to Improving the Environmental Performance of Construction Waste Management in Remote Communities

The construction sector represents one of the most significant contributors to global waste production and is responsible for over 30% of the waste that ends up in landfill. Sending construction waste to landfill results in a broad range of environmental consequences including: degradation of land, habitat destruction, contamination of soil and groundwater, and release of methane. There is a growing awareness of the need to divert construction and demolition (C&D) waste from landfill for reuse or recycling. This helps maximise the value of the resources embodied in these materials and reduce the demand for virgin raw materials and the associated environment effects resulting from their extraction, processing and manufacture. However, diversion of C&D waste to reuse or recycling in remote communities can be difficult and costly. This poses a significant challenge for improving the environmental performance of construction waste management in these communities. A housing refurbishment project in Alice Springs, a remote town in central Australia, was used to identify the barriers associated with improving the environmental performance of construction waste management in remote communities. This study considers the materials removed as part of the demolition phase of the project. Material types and quantities were documented and on-site and off-site waste management practices observed. Reasons for waste management decisions were recorded. The study identified a range of barriers to improving the environmental performance of construction waste management in remote communities. These include cost and time associated with on-site waste management, industry culture, lack of education, competing project priorities, and lack of financial incentive. Greater incentives to encourage the diversion of C&D waste from landfill are needed, in particular. This and other strategies for improving construction waste management practices in remote communities must be targeted at the context of individual communities though, due to their unique characteristics.

Behavioral determinants towards enhancing construction waste management: A Bayesian Network analysis

In this study, a Bayesian Network analysis is used to define causal behavioral determinants towards improving practices in construction waste management (CWM). For this purpose, a structured survey questionnaire was developed and administered to field workers at construction projects. The collected data was used to develop a probabilistic relational model with single- and multi-factor analysis to assess conditional probabilities underlying various determinants. The results indicate that behavior is highly influenced by attitude, past experience, and social pressure with 21, 20, and 10% higher chance of improvement by these factors, respectively. Behavior in CWM appears to be more sensitive to changes in personal factors such as attitude than corporate factors such as training. When simultaneously controlling all factors, the behavior is improved with personal factors by 9% more than with corporate factors. Additionally, it was found that the probability of having effective CWM practices on-site reaches 83% when workers have a positive attitude towards waste management, are well experienced in CWM practices, and are influenced by social pressure. Achieving this result also requires independency at work and availability of training sessions. The model raises the awareness of construction stakeholders about factors influencing workers’ behavior towards CWM and presents quantified strategies that increase the chances of minimizing the generation of construction waste. It can serve as a motivation and a decision support tool for adopting and implementing sustainable CWM practices.

Construction Waste Management Profiles, Practices, and Performance: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis in Four Countries

Construction waste management (CWM) has received worldwide attention for some time. As a result, a plethora of research, investigating a wide array of CWM issues such as their profiles, practices, and performance, has been reported in individual economies around the globe. However, a cross-jurisdictional comparison of these issues is limitedly presented in the literature despite its importance to benchmarking performance and identifying best CWM practices in the context of globalization whereby knowledge sharing has already transcended traditional country boundaries. The aim of this ex post facto research is to compare CWM profiles, practices, and performance in Australia, Europe (Europe refers to EU-27 member countries in the European Union, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Romania.), Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom at a national-level, with a view to facilitating CWM knowledge sharing internationally. It does so by triangulating empirical data collected from various national statistical yearbooks with research papers and professional reports on CWM in these economies. It is found that in producing one million (US) dollars’ work, construction contributes a volume of solid waste ranging from 28 to 121 tons among countries. Conscientious CWM practices can make a significant difference in reducing, reusing, or recycling construction waste, as evident in the large variation in the CWM performance. While it might be oversimplified to conclude that the best practices in one country can be applied in another, the research provides insightful references into sharing CWM knowledge across boundaries.

Benchmarking construction waste management performance using big data

The waste generation rate (WGR) is usually used as a key performance indicator (KPI) to benchmark construction waste management (CWM) performance, with a view to improving the performance continuously. However, existing researches, for different reasons, only investigated a relatively small amount of construction projects, whose WGRs cannot be confidently accepted as KPIs. This study develops a set of more reliable KPIs/WGRs using an available big dataset on CWM in Hong Kong. By mining the 2,212,026 waste disposal records generated from 5764 projects in two consecutive years of 2011 and 2012, the WGRs/KPIs are revisited and refined. Demolition is found the most wasteful works. New building, and maintenance and renovation (M&R) works individually produce the least waste amount but by accumulating all M&R works, their contribution to the total amount of construction waste could be phenomenal. Based on the more reliable WGRs from the big data, CWM performance benchmarks for different categories of projects are set up. A contractor can benchmark its CWM performance against its counterparts or its past performance as ‘Good’, ‘Average’, and ‘Not-so-good’, and thus identify better CWM practices that induce superior performance. Based on the benchmarks, the government may consider setting up a WGR-step toll system to encourage those ‘Not-so-good’ contractors to perform well in the future, and initiate incentives to the companies conducting ‘Good’ projects to spur better CWM performance. Overall, the WGRs derived from the big data and more robust analyses provide a very powerful and handy tool for CWM.