Waste Generation Predictions and On-Site Waste Management: A Danish Perspective

Abstract

Multiple methodologies exist for the calculation, estimation, and simulation of waste generation in the construction industry as means for planning and conducting waste management. The reliability and usability of such methods has, nonetheless, not previously been evaluated. This study, therefore, investigated the existing methodologies for waste prediction through a literature review and an analysis of the identified methods using two construction cases from Denmark. Semi-structured interviews were, additionally, utilised to explain how and why waste behaviour is the way it is in the Danish construction industry. The results showed that waste management is affected by multiple factors, which are not reflected in the current methodologies for waste estimation, and that waste behaviour as well as organisational factors are key contributors. In addition, the study concluded that existing estimation methodologies for waste generation tend to be either high in complexity or low in accuracy, limiting the benefits achievable from using them, and that projects of the same type within close proximity can be significantly different from another, highlighting a clear limitation for the development of waste estimation methodologies.