Construction Materials Waste and Its Management Practices: A Case Study on Housing Construction Projects in Addis Ababa

Abstract

Construction is a vital connection to the infrastructure and growth of industry in developing countries. Ethiopia is among the fast growing developing nations where construction and demolition activities are undertaking at every corner of the country. Construction of roads, buildings, bridges and other constructed facilities play an important role in shaping society’s future. However, the construction industry does not firmly take some common considerations such as design, finance, environment, energy, and other elements. Consequently, the construction industry produces a huge amount of waste which is environmentally unfriendly, and costly to project budgets. In some areas all or part of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is unlawfully deposited on land, or in natural drainage including water, contrary to regulations to protect human health, commerce and the environment. So the management of construction waste plays an important role in the cost of project and appropriate use of the construction waste is a solution to the fast degradation of virgin raw materials in the construction industry. Furthermore, the environmental impacts of the construction industry can be reduced through sustainable waste management (SWM).As a developing country, Ethiopia is behind the developed countries in construction waste management. Thus the paper is aimed at review of literatures and to assess the factors that contribute to waste in construction; find out how much construction waste is costing project budgets; assess the practice of construction waste management; gain an understanding of C&D waste management planning concepts, frameworks, strategies, and components that are current and emerging in the field; besides the roles of different stakeholders such as owners, contractors and construction management community will also be investigated in terms of their responsibility for construction waste management. The study revealed that in Ethiopia, construction materials waste exists at high rates and its management is at an infant stage and construction companies do not adhere to international best practices. The study also recommends that Managing Waste need a serious attention from all the stakeholders involved throughout the construction process from planning to finishing stage of the works.